Скачать или смотреть Understanding the Meaning of Independence Day

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Keith Lockitch discuss the full meaning of the “independence” in Independence Day and what we should be celebrating about America.

Among the topics covered:

A message from ARI’s first CEO regarding Independence Day;
The reason the Americans declared independence from Britain: the principle of individual rights;
Why it’s ominous that the injustice the American colonists revolted against was mild compared to what today’s government’s perpetrate;
How the value of individual rights rests on the need for intellectual independence;
How today’s anti-freedom ideologies are rooted in hostility to intellectual independence;
The American Revolution’s insufficient independent thinking about morality;
The moral independence declared by Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged;
Thomas Jefferson’s own words on the meaning of Independence Day, and Rand’s view on the Declaration;
Whether there will ever be a day to celebrate the achievement of laissez-faire capitalism in America.

Mentioned in the discussion are Onkar Ghate’s talk “Atlas Shrugged: America’s Second Declaration of Independence”(   • Atlas Shrugged: America’s Second Declarati...  ) (text version: https://ari.aynrand.org/wp-content/up...) and Ayn Rand’s talk (https://courses.aynrand.org/works/a-n...) “A Nation’s Unity.”


00:00 Introduction
00:41 ARI's CEO on Independence Day
06:11 Individual rights as cause of revolution
09:31 Injustices: 18th vs. 21st century
14:49 Intellectual independence
19:15 Hostility to intellectual independence
22:10 Independent thinking about morality
32:42 Atlas Shrugged and moral independence
43:17 Jefferson and Rand on Independence Day
47:36 A holiday to celebrate capitalism?