Study Ayn Rand’s Ideas

Sidebar: Testimonial of an OAC Graduate
As more and more young people become interested in Ayn Rand’s ideas and methodology, there is an increasing need and demand for an institution that systematically teaches her philosophy. In fact, such an institution exists.
The Ayn Rand Institute’s Objectivist Academic Center offers students an opportunity to formally study Rand’s philosophy. [...]

Testimonial of an OAC Graduate

The primary purpose of the OAC is to teach students about Objectivism. However, in my case the program also provided a major secondary benefit: the positive effect it had on the rest of my academic life.
The knowledge and skills I acquired at the OAC had a permeating impact across my academic studies: I noticed [...]

How Not to Lie with Statistics: The Good, the Bad, and the Average

The formula is painfully familiar— “According to a recent survey by X from the University of Y,” followed by a statement about married couples’ tendency to get bored with their sex lives (ABC News), or thin women’s tendency to think themselves fat (Psychology Today), or older people’s tendency to become increasingly religious (Harris Poll, 2006)—or any number of statistically proven and so presumably unquestionable claims about human nature.

Matter Over Mindlessness: Neo-Buddhism No Cure for Harvard’s Depression

In its usual capacity as scholastic trend-setter, Harvard University unleashed a strange phenomenon on academia last year: amid the marble halls and ivy thickets, visiting professor Tal Ben-Shahar attracted a record population of Harvard students to a class about “squeezing lemons into lemonade.” In the spring 2006 semester, the course-called “Positive Psychology”-weighed in at 855 students, becoming Harvard’s most popular class. Ben-Shahar’s course may or may not accurately represent the Positive Psychology movement growing in America today, but it does represent another intellectual phenomenon that appears to be spreading like wildfire in the West; namely, the religious mysticism of the East. Ben-Shahar quotes the Dalai Lama and the Buddha extensively throughout his course and teaches books inspired by Buddhist thought and practice, such as “Destructive Emotions: A Dialogue with the Dalai Lama” and the Dalai Lama’s own article “The Monk in the Lab.”

Joining Heart and Head: A Cure for the House, MD Blues

It is a common view that the quest for truth breeds misery-as echoed lately in viewer responses to House, MD.

Raking in four Emmy nominations, including Best Dramatic Series, House has emerged as the most popular show on primetime TV. Its title character, Dr. Gregory House, is a brilliant, cynically sarcastic doctor described by many as an “exemplar of rationality” (New York Times). He is a genius of observation and logical deduction, investigating probable causes and hunting for clues in improbable places. He is also notoriously miserable, suffering from a painkiller addiction and a lackluster personal life. “Humanity is overrated,” he grumbles, before proceeding to save countless humans’ lives where other doctors have failed.

Don’t Be Evil, Google

In launching Google.cn on January 25th, the beloved search engine caved in to the Chinese government’s demand that it block politically “sensitive” content from searches. Now, if a Chinese web surfer wants to learn, for instance, about the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, he will find 13,600 pages of government-sanctioned myths–with 1,566,400 pages, those containing the politically dangerous truth, omitted.

Chronicles of Narnia: Christian Sheep in Lion’s Clothing

The buzz about Christian propaganda couched in Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe seems to have subsided. With the film’s premiere, the suspense about ideology has largely been replaced by universal commendations of its “enchanting animations” and portrayal of “family values.”

Secular reviewers find the Christian motifs even less intrusive than in C. S. Lewis’s original novel, which many enjoyed in childhood as simply a well-told adventure story. About Christ-figure Aslan the lion’s sacrifice, Stephany Zacharek of Salon writes, “I think… it speaks to our capacity for compassion, and if that’s not nondenominational, I don’t know what is.” Ty Burr of the Boston Globe advises: “Take a deep breath and relax. Aslan doesn’t spout blood from his paws or perform the miracle of the loaves and… fishes.”

Harry Potter and the Half-Stumped Critics

By now few of our readers have eluded the fairy dust that has settled all over the world since Harry Potter first cast its spell. This summer Rowling seemed to have yet again bewitched entire populations, as young and old, rich and poor, college professors and elementary school kids all stormed the bookstores at midnight on July 16th to get their hands on the sixth installment of the series.

A Tale of Two Symbols: Ground Zero and the Battle for America’s Soul

A peculiar and noteworthy feature of mankind can be observed in the importance we lend to certain pieces of matter. Consider the perilous quests on which men have launched, both mythical and historical, in pursuit of certain objects–like a wooden cup (the “Holy Grail”) and a sheep’s skin (”Golden Fleece”) and tree branches (consecrating our honor through laurel wreathes, our love through red roses) and rectangles of colored cloth (ranging from a victorious blue ribbon to a nation’s billowing flag).

This distinctly human function, of imbuing concrete objects with abstract symbolism, goes a long way toward explaining the controversy that recently raged over what will replace the fallen World Trade Center towers in New York.

Sex, the Suburbs, and What Housewives Are Desperate For

Breaking every viewer record and emerging as the #1 primetime TV sensation, ABC’s Desperate Housewives has been called the Sex and the City of the suburbs. Writer Marc Cherry told The Age that “Desperate Housewives is a kind of skewed homage to suburban life,” and that he “found inspiration in everything from the later episodes of I Love Lucy (after they move to Connecticut) to the Oscar-winning American Beauty.” The show, which is set in the archetypal suburban neighborhood of Wisteria Lane, follows a familiar pattern (seen also in Pleasantville, The Truman Show, Stepford Wives): an outwardly idyllic paradise is unveiled to reveal the seedy, depraved colony of frustrated role-players swarming underneath.