From everyone at The Objective Standard to everyone who thinks, produces, trades, and thereby creates the values on which human life and happiness depend: Thank you. Thank you, profit-seeking businessmen, for producing and selling everything from groceries to computers to

As William F. Buckley’s 100th birthday nears, conservatives will pretend that he was a man of principle, civility, dignity, honor. He was not. Buckley was cowardly, dishonest, unjust, and racist. Read more: https://t.co/5IKtidjxDc

This World Philosophy Day is a great time to learn about some of Ayn Rand's contributions to the field, including her identifications of "package deals" and "anti-concepts." Read more:

The principle of individual rights is not a gift from “God” or the government, nor is it a matter of mere preference or opinion. Rather, it is a truth that anyone can grasp—if he observes reality, uses reason, and refuses to pretend that feelings, faith, or consensus are means of

As has every iteration of Marxist collectivism, East German communism succeeded only at destroying human life. On November 9, 1989, after twenty-eight years, the virtual prison created by the Berlin Wall was opened, and Germans—East and West—rejoiced.

On this day in 1864, Abraham Lincoln was reelected for a second term. Was he, as most Americans believe, a defender of individual rights, a foe of slavery, and a savior of the American republic—one of history’s great heroes of liberty? Or was he a tyrant who turned his back on

With only two months remaining in 2025 and little in the way of serious competition, "Frankenstein" most likely will stand as the best major studio release of the year by a wide margin. It adapts the original novel faithfully and changes only one major element—the ending—as an

If you want a glimpse of the future we can have if we support rational young intellectuals, check out this recent interview with @kiyahwillis. Kiyah is a voice of reason in a sea of insanity. She addresses difficult subjects head-on with simple, straightforward language and

Some people don’t like a political spectrum that exposes the respective natures of political systems by reference to their positions on freedom and force. Some people don’t want such clarity. This is to be expected from socialists, nationalists, theocrats, and statists in

Etymology helps us to understand how and why terms developed as they did. The etymology of “capitalism” integrates seamlessly with the system to which the term refers. Capitalism is the system that respects the mind, frees the mind, is based on the mind, and is driven by the

Why do some people excel in life whereas others stagnate? Many factors are at play, but none is more powerful than free will. We can choose to think or not to think, to exert mental effort or not to do so. That’s our fundamental choice. And choosing to think—along with choosing

Unlike religion and secular altruism, rational egoism neither entails nor permits any claim on the lives of other men. It holds that each man should act in his own best interest and that each man is the proper beneficiary of his own thought and action. And because egoism

Rights derive from the requirements of human life in a social context; they are moral principles that identify an individual’s proper freedom of action within that context. Given that fetuses do not exist in a social context but inside a woman, they do not have rights. Women do.

"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships. Happiness is not for wild animals who can only oscillate between hunger and repletion. To be happy we must exercise our reasoning faculty and be conscious of our will and powers. In other words, we must

Happy Halloween! It’s a holiday to make light of evil and to celebrate the good. But, given the inflatable ghosts on your neighbor’s lawn and the kids dressed as zombies and monsters—it’s also an opportunity to reflect on the basis and nature of evil. https://t.co/BpurXxfGaC

Many people tend to think of horror-themed movies, games, and holidays as inherently depressing, nihilistic, or pointless, but none of that necessarily must be true. Done right, horror can be positive, fun, and pro-life. https://t.co/Qojh6L7QcM

It’s clear from "The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding" that Joseph Ellis is bothered by the scorn recently heaped upon the American founding fathers by writers such as those affiliated with The New York Times’s “1619 Project.” The Pulitzer

If moral principles or “oughts” are ideas to guide our choices and actions in service of our life and happiness (and they are), then we certainly can derive them from the facts of reality. And we not only can; we must—that is, if we want to live and prosper.

Today is the anniversary of the first of 85 Federalist essays, which were authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Here's to these great men and to the heavy intellectual lifting they did in creating the Land of Liberty!  https://t.co/mNhAUb1JdH

You live once. Then you die, and your life is over forever. Your life—including all of the values, experiences, efforts, achievements, and relationships that make up your life—properly matters more to you than anything else in the world. The moral question to ask yourself is not