Navigator, March, 2001

Commentaries:

Supply-Side Ethics
David Kelley, TOC's executive director, notes that Ayn Rand was the first thinker who proposed a genuine supply-side ethic. She recognized that achievement, not suffering, is the central fact of human existence. She honored the act of creating value above the act of giving it away. Pride of place in her moral code went to the virtues that make achievement possible rather than the virtues of benevolence to others.

The Moral Necessity of National Missile Defense
Homeland defense is the primary national security priority and ultimate moral requirement of any state. Today, says James Robbins, a professor of international relations at National Defense University, that means the United States must build an antiballistic missle system.

Articles & Reviews:

The Morality of Capitalism
The newest critique of capitalism does not challenge its effectiveness, says TOC's manager of current affairs. It acknowledges that capitalism is better than any other system at creating wealth, eradicating poverty, and developing technology. But, the new critique asks, is wealth, mass affluence, and technology really such good things?

Teaching Virtue in a Postmodern World
Navigator's editor, Roger Donway, notes that James Davision Hunter's The Death of Character asks a very pertinent question: How can we teach morality in grammar school and high school when our college professors assert that no morality can be validated?

Logbook:

Attending TOC's summer seminar is like going to a university where the other students share your values.

Other Logbook items:
Advanced Seminar Program Set, Winter 2001 TOC Effective Communication Workshop, TOC Speakers Engage Many Audiences, Sightings of FEE student program, Ireland's free-market think-tank: the Open Republic, IHS Summer Program, and The Henry Hazlitt Foundation's Bureaucrash.org