Freedom of speech is indispensable to a free and civilized society, yet this precious right is increasingly under attack today.
Islamic totalitarians repeatedly threaten and kill those deemed blasphemers while our political leaders stand idly by-and many intellectuals blame the victims. College students seek 'trigger warnings' and 'safe spaces' from controversial ideas. The government harasses tea party groups, preventing them from speaking out during an election, and it investigates oil companies and advocacy groups for the 'crime' of dissenting from climate change orthodoxy. Why is this happening? What can be done?
This hard-hitting collection provides answers. Applying Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism to the most pressing free speech issues of the day, the essays in this book reveal the attacks on free speech to be the product of destructive ideas-ideas that are eroding Western culture at its foundation. They expose those ideas and the individuals who hold them, and, importantly, they identify the only ideas on which Western civilization can be sustained: reason, egoism, and individual rights.
The military strength of the United States is unmatched in all of world history. Yet fifteen years after September 11, Islamic totalitarianism is undefeated, emboldened, and on the march: from Paris and San Bernardino to Brussels and Orlando. Why?The fundamental problem lies in the irrational philosophic ideas that permeate-and subvert-American foreign policy. The United States is a military superpower, but it lacks the self-confidence and moral certainty needed to defend itself and its ideals. And our political and intellectual leaders evade the nature of Islamic totalitarianism.After 9/11, the Ayn Rand Institute predicted that the prevailing ideas about morality would undercut our foreign policy and cripple us in action. In the op-eds, essays, blog posts, and interviews featured in this book, you will see that those predictions have proved correct.Can we end the Islamist menace and secure our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on earth? Yes-easily-if we adopt the right philosophic ideas to guide our foreign policy.
