Fall 2009 Meetings

Meeting Dates (every other Tuesday, 8pm)

• 29 September, Squires 145
  
• 13 October, GBJ 104
  
• 27 October, Squires 145
  
• 10 November, Squires 145
  
• *** NO meeting 24 November.  Happy Thanksgiving!
• 8 December, Squires 145
  

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Freedom Explained with Cartoons

Here are some delightful cartoons produced by John Sutherland explaining freedom and capitalism to children.  Most are about 10 minutes long and available in common formats or in a stream from the Internet Archive (all quotes attributed, link to entire list).  They are all in the public domain, so download and share!

• Make Mine Freedom (1948) - "This Cold War-era cartoon uses humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism."  It addresses many of the talking points of communism.
• Meet King Joe (1949) - "Cold War cartoon aimed at American workers with the objective of convincing them of their good fortune."
• Why Play Leap Frog? (1949) -"Cold War-era cartoon aimed at convincing workers that increased productivity brings about greater purchasing power."  
• What Makes Us Tick (1952) - Cartoon chartered by the New York Stock Exchange to explain how the stock market works and why it is important.
• It's Everybody's Business (1954) - This cartoon demonstrates the link between political freedom and economic prosperity.  It also teaches that it is our responsibility as citizens to guard our freedom from threats abroad and our own government.
• Destination Earth (1956) - "In this corporate-sponsored cartoon, Martian dissidents learn that oil and competition are the two things that make America great."
• Working Dollars (1957) - Another cartoon chartered by the New York Stock Exchange promoting responsible investment in business to grow one's money.
• The Wise Use of Credit (???) - Blatant sexism aside, still an easy way to understand what consumer credit is and how to use it.

Links

Here are a few free places online to learn more about Objectivism (and other stuff too!).  

• The Ayn Rand Institute - It's the official place online for Objectivism.  They operate the essay contests for her books throughout high school/college and are extremely helpful to college clubs.   They have extensive FAQs and lots primers on Objectivism, not to mention a great archive of op-eds (updated about once a week).
• The Facets of Ayn Rand - A memoir of Ayn Rand available in whole online.  It also contains links to free audio streams (RealPlayer or Windows Media)
• Atlas Shrugged - has its own website!  There are a bunch of free streams (RealPlayer) discussing the themes of the book chapter-by-chapter and a few of the longer dialogue passages.
• Capitalism Magazine - A frequently updated op-ed collection and a lot of smaller news bits.
• Forums for Ayn Rand Fans - An active bulletin board system.  We have our own subforum here as well.

• George Reisman - Free market economist influenced by Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises (see next), blog and treatise.
• Ludwig von Mises Institute - Founded in the thought of free-market economist Ludwig von Mises.  The institute has a great deal of free books, audio, and video (usually in multiple formats per item) about economics, politics, history, and philosophy.

I will post more links as I find them.  I don't know about the copyright status of anything within the sites, but as of this posting, they all have a great deal of free stuff to read or watch.  Enjoy! :)

Hello world!

This is the website of the Objectivist Club at Virginia Tech. It's where announcements for club meetings and events will be posted. Over the summer, I'll put up more content and links to learn more about Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

As a club, we have our sub-forum within a larger discussion forum here.

Natalie