Dear friends,
A few weeks ago, Ayn Rand Institute board member John Allison wrote an
eloquent letter describing how, regardless of the state of the world,
Ayn Rand’s ideas can transform your life for the better. And, he noted,
ARI is helping countless people around the globe use Rand’s ideas to do
just that—transform their lives for the better.
One of the
things I discovered when I became CEO of the Ayn Rand Institute two and
half years ago was how much I, a long-time supporter, didn’t
know about the scale of ARI’s impact. ARI was founded 35 years ago to
advance the philosophy of Objectivism. As we near the end of 2020, I
want to give you a brief glimpse into our achievements—and an indication
of what lies ahead.
From the start, ARI has believed that the
best spokesman for Ayn Rand’s ideas is Ayn Rand. And so, a core part of
our strategy has been to promote her books—especially to young people,
who are actively forming their philosophic convictions.
To
date, our essay contests have attracted submissions from more than
440,000 students—and some of the best intellectuals we have today
started as participants in our essay contest program. Our Free Books to
Teachers program has distributed 4.5 millions books to students and we
estimate that, in total, more than 9 million students have read these
books as teachers reuse those books. With the awareness of Ayn Rand’s
ideas that this program has created over the years, Rand is more widely
regarded as an important writer today than she was during her lifetime.
Her books keep inspiring young minds toward better, more fulfilled
lives.
Once someone has read Ayn Rand’s books, it’s vital that
they have avenues through which they can increase their understanding of
her ideas. On our YouTube channel, for example, ARI has made available
nearly 1,000 videos, covering every topic from art to epistemology to
morality to politics to current events. These videos have collectively
been viewed over 7 million times and our channel is growing faster than
ever. Last year, we saw our subscribers increase from 30,000 to 45,000;
this year the number is more than 64,000. Thousands of people discover
Ayn Rand and her ideas every month and go on to watch hours of
Objectivist content on our YouTube channel, our mobile app and our
online campus.
ARI is charged with preserving Ayn Rand’s
legacy, which includes storing, cataloguing and maintaining tens of
thousands of items in the Ayn Rand Archives. We are currently heavily
investing in upgrading the infrastructure, the systems and, eventually,
the presentation and accessibility of the treasure trove that is the Ayn
Rand Archives. Both the physical and digital items of the archives are
managed with great care to ensure that Rand’s legacy is preserved for
generations to come. We plan to bring forward many more collections that
will allow interested individuals to learn more about Ayn Rand’s genius
and the heroic life that she led.
For the community of people
who agree with Ayn Rand’s philosophy, we offer an array of products such
as advanced courses and ARI’s annual summer conference, OCON, which
this coming year takes place June 29–July 5 in Washington, D.C. For
those who choose to become supporters of ARI, we offer a series of web
meetings called ARI Donor Roundtables, where we dive into different
aspects of the Objectivist philosophy and feature community members who
are successfully applying Rand’s philosophy in their lives and
productive careers.
For those who are serious about careers as
professional intellectuals or intellectual professionals, we’ve created
the leading training program on Objectivism: the Objectivist Academic
Center (OAC). Participation in the OAC has never been higher, with 120
students and auditors taking classes on Objectivism, philosophic
thinking, and objective communication. In our view, the OAC is the best
school of philosophy in the world.
Starting with the
Objectivist Graduate Center, the precursor to the OAC, more than 1,000
students have taken part in our training programs. Some of those
students have gone on to become professors. Others are working at
influential think tanks or have started their own successful think
tanks. And yet others have launched or are engaged in successful
businesses, careers in the arts, activism efforts, and other endeavors.
Finally, ARI believes that in order to help people to properly approach
and grasp Ayn Rand's radical system of ideas, we need to offer
meaningful educational engagements. Last year, despite the pandemic, we
gathered the largest number of conference attendees (both in person and
online) we’ve had in any year: 2,874 participants. The year before that,
our in-person conference attendance reached 1,547. We are planning to
continue to offer the unique experience of an Ayn Rand Conference in the
US, Europe, Latin America and hopefully other regions of the world.
We are rightly proud of these achievements, and we’re grateful to you
for helping make them possible. But the question we ask ourselves each
and every day is: what more can we be doing?
I’ll be talking
about this in our annual report, which you should be receiving in a few
weeks. For now, I’ll just say that as we enter 2021, our core strategy
is to better leverage our strengths—and to grow our skillset and become
even better at reaching people. There are many exciting projects in the
works.
I’m an optimist. But I’m not blindly optimistic. My optimism about the future is based on the fact that Rand’s ideas are true—and
that there is clear evidence of a continual increase in interest in Ayn
Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. We see readers and viewers around the
world discovering Objectivism and, with your help, we’ll continue to
demonstrate how her ideas help people around the world live richer,
happier, freer lives.
But I want to underscore “with your help.”
Right now, the enemies of reason, individualism, and freedom are able
to raise billions by appealing to duty, fear, guilt, and the phony moral
superiority that comes with endorsing socially popular causes. What I’m
appealing to is your self-interest.
Today is “Giving
Tuesday”—though we prefer to call it Trading Tuesday. On this occasion,
if you believe that Ayn Rand’s ideas are true, if you believe they are
important, if you would like to see thousands more trained by the OAC
and millions more reading and studying Ayn Rand, then please consider
trading with ARI by increasing your support.
We will make sure that whatever you rationally allocate to supporting
this cause will be used effectively and efficiently to create a better
world—for you and the people you love.
What could be more selfish than that?
Tal Tsfany
CEO, Ayn Rand Institute |
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