Expanding the ARC's Reach

The Ayn Rand Institute has been doing a great job of spreading Objectivism through many different mediums. The biggest and best move was the development of the Ayn Rand Center in Washington DC, giving the institute presence on both coasts and in the capitol (you know, where all the government folk are?). The ARC has a blog, Voices for Reason. It's been producing op-eds, q&a, and lecture videos on You Tube. It has presence on Facebook and a monthly newsletter, Impact. Analysts often make TV appearances on news networks. ARC writers frequently contribute to The Objective Standard and write letters to the editor. The ARC sponsors lectures all across the nation and several conferences.

Add the all the activism of individuals and advocacy groups, and there's a lot of irons in the fire for Objectivism. But of course, there is always more that can be done.

I think the ARC could really benefit from a more aggressive visual campaign. People respond well to visuals, and are generally more drawn in by a photo or video than text (not that text isn't important!). Visuals can be an excellent way to "cast a net" for potential people open to Objectivism, who will watch a video/multimedia piece and hopefully click on a link to ARC's homepage and read some op-eds. Visuals are great for an initial hook.

Some ideas for improving the visual campaign:

• More more more video op-eds. These videos are easily linked to in emails or blogs. Videos can attract those who wouldn't read through a long bulk of text. The ARI can provide a contrasting opinion by leaving op-ed video comments on top issues. YouTube has a huge community that the ARI could really tap into.
• Multimedia pieces on programs of ARI including the summer internship program, essay contests, Objectivist conferences, and the Objectivist Academic Center. I personally want to know more about the internship and the OAC. Having read all I can on the site, I'm still left with many questions that I think a comprehensive multimedia piece would answer.
  
• Video how-to's on starting an Objectivist club. These can feature already successful clubs and stories of how they got their start, how they attracted people, and how they remained active. I think information on how to generate interest in Ayn Rand, and then hold that interest, would be valuable to students who'd like to start a club, but are skeptical of their peers' attention.
  
• Informational/journalistic video of ARI's Free Books to Teachers Program. This one's been sitting on the back for my mind for a while. Start off with a quick explanation about how the program works, how many books it's gotten out, etc. Then move more specific by interviewing teachers and professors who use the books in their curriculum. Give real life audio or video of a class discussing the book. Maybe follow the path of a class set as it's ordered, shipped off, opened, and then studied by a class (this all looks good in my head btw). I think real life testimonies of teachers and students about the program will help it gain publicity. The video could also highlight some obstacles of teaching the book (getting kids through a 1200 page novel, including 60 pages of Galt's speech). Maybe even turn it into it's own site where educators can discuss the book and teaching methods.
• Not quite ARC related, but I wonder if The Objective Standard or The Undercurrent would ever expand to visual platforms. I'm not sure if they need to. But if they did, the publications could easily make use of any of these techniques for their sites.
  

Free Ayn Rand Book Initiative in UK

Tito at Tito's Blog recently created The Prometheus Initiative. Similar to the Free Books for Schools Program run by the Ayn Rand Institute, it aims to get Anthem and The Fountainhead out to schools in the UK, all for free. I'm assuming Atlas Shrugged will come as well when money does. The program is run entirely on donations, so please contribute.

The site also promises to open up a store, stocked with Objectivist goodies no doubt. I could go for an Ayn Rand quote button or a Fountainhead t-shirt like this one.

It's really awesome to see Objectivists my age (exactly how old are you Tito?) being active. Makes me want to go write some LTE's.

Saving Newspapers with Good Design

While I think newspapers are seriously going to shrink, that the web will have dominance in news, all is not lost. Small local papers, and even some large ones, can keep from going under, and possibly grow if they utilize good design in their papers. Jacek Utko, a Polish designer, took several poor Eastern European papers and through consistent design, increased their circulation significantly year by year.



Now if a poor Bulgarian paper can do that, why can't an American one do the same? Editors need to stop lamenting their dying papers and get to work breathing back life into them!

Lessons in Disney: Edna

I've always loved Disney movies. Still do. As I get older I can pick out underlying themes and ideas and find myself agreeing with most of them. Sometimes they're obvious, sometimes a bit under the radar. This particular scene from The Incredibles has always stuck out to me.



"I used to design for Gods!" I love that line! I love it because it is a celebration of the best in man, of working towards greatness, rather than for "spoiled stupid little stick figures." I love that Edna is so into her work, so passionate about it. In fact later in the movie she claims she couldn't help herself from designing suits for the whole family, as the project had consumed her. I admire her passion.

Earth Hour Visualized

Wow. Remember how I said the Earth Hour proponents wanted to see 1 billion people in darkness? For an actual visualization of this, check this out. By clicking on the picture of several prominent landmarks and skylines, you can see the lights fade and go out, giving a glimpse of what environmentalists are trying to achieve: the end of industrialization.

For instance, the Nokia Plaza in LA goes from this...


to this.


It makes me sick. A city ablaze with light is a sign of life, of progress, of achievement. Seeing all that fade out is an eerie and haunting. And the environmentalists see it as a good thing! After thousands of years of building up civilization, lighting our cities, and improving man's life, environmentalists seek to reverse it. Bleh.

Hm. A multimedia piece on Edison Hour next year sounds like an awesome way to shed some light on the situation (haha). It would certainly be more uplifting than that crap.

Multimedia Final Project

I received my multimedia final project assignment today. Between now and finals week (mid May), I have to document an issue, expressed primarily through one person. As is something in the news, something that poses a question, something debatable.

Considering that I'm going to the Tax Day Tea Party in Nashville anyways to shoot and collect audio, I thought about covering the stimulus and government interference in business. Coming from a capitalist point of view, it would be a nice contrast to the liberalism that floods the department. But where to find somebody to represent the issue?

Finding somebody involved with the protest would be awesome, but it needs to move beyond that. I need somebody who's been affected by government regulation or someone who is actively fighting it. Maybe both.

And ideally I'd like to find somebody who understands the philosophy of why government interference is bad, not just somebody who doesn't want to pay taxes. I think that part is crucial to make this a thought provoking piece, rather than somebody who's just reacting to higher taxes. If anyone has any ideas about how to find such a person, or happens to know somebody in the Nashville or Bowling Green areas (I'm out on a limb here huh?) that fits the bill, please please please let me know. I'd really like to make a piece that speaks out against government intervention in business.

Japanese IQ Test

This is fun. Try the Japanese IQ test. It's challenging.

And if you're impatient like I am, here is the answer.

Photo Blog Update

Go check out my photo blog for photos from Sign Fest yesterday. I had a great time. And it made me realize that I really want to pursue ASL more. More so than I expected. It might influence some big decisions coming up in life.

Book Challenge

After finally finally finally getting a library card in both Bowling Green and Elizabethtown, I've decided to try to read more in my downtime. So I, in my regular OCD fashion, have created a list of books I'd like to read within my lifetime. I won't set a time limit or book quota on anything, because each book is different. Harry Potter I can read in a night, but Atlas Shrugged took me all summer (more concepts to digest). So here's my book challenge, which I will update as I plow through the list.

1. The Handmaiden's Tale- Margaret Atwood
2. Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
3. 1984- George Orwell
4. Lolita- Vladimir Nobokov
5. Catch 22- Joseph Heller
6. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
7. Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
8. Gone with the Wind- Margaret Mitchell
9. Persuasion- Jane Austen
10. Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden
11. Lord of the Flies- William Golding
12. Count of Monte Cristo- Alexadre Dumas
13. Cyrano De Bergerac- Edmond Rostand
14. The Color Purple- Alice Walker
15. The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
16. The Pursuit of Happyness- Chris Gardner
17. Sparrowhawk Series- Edward Cline
18. Pillars of the Earth- Kevin Follet
19. Slaugherhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut
20. Wicked- Gregory Maguire
21. Loving Life- Craig Biddle
22. Economics in One Lesson- Henry Hazlitt
    
23. The Case Against Adolscence- Robert Epstein
24. The Golden Compass Series- Philip Pullman
25. A Wrinkle in Time- Madeleine L'Engle
26. The Tale of Despereaux- Kate DiCamillo
27. Charlotte's Web- E.B. White
28. The Secret Garden- Francis Hodges Barnett
29. Chronicles of Narnia Series- C.S. Lewis
30. Alice in Wonderland
31. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
32. Peter Pan- J.M. Barrie