Woodstock's Legacy: The Rise of Environmentalism and the Religious

ARI Media Feed · April 4, 2008

By Yaron Brook from The Ayn Rand Institute Stories,cross-posted by MetaBlog

Woodstock's Legacy:

The Rise of Environmentalism and the Religious Right

Who: Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute

What: A talk that will consider how the opposing forces of reason and emotionalism have manifested themselves in American culture in the four decades since Woodstock, with special focus on the rise of religion and environmentalism. A Q&A will follow.

Where: Hilton Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

When: Thursday, May 1, 2008, at 7:30 PM

Admission is FREE.

Description: At Ford Hall Forum in 1969, Ayn Rand examined the cultural significance of two high-profile, enormously well-attended but very different events: Woodstock and the "Apollo 11" launch.

In her lecture, "Apollo and Dionysus," she showed how philosophical ideas play out in a culture: she showed why these two events, so opposite in nature, were a product of a long-standing philosophical dichotomy, reason versus emotion. She concluded her talk by noting that, against the bromide that man's senses and reason confine him to the grubby, material world while his mystical emotions lift him to the stars, reality "last summer . . . offered you a literal dramatization of the truth: it is man's irrational emotions that bring him down to the mud; it is man's reason that lifts him to the stars."

In this talk, Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, will consider how these two opposing forces, reason and emotionalism, have manifested themselves in American culture in the ensuing decades. He will examine the Apollonian elements which are lifting us to the stars. And he will examine the Dionysian elements, which are dragging us back down into the mud, figuratively or literally: religion and environmentalism.

Bio: Yaron Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and is a contributing editor to "The Objective Standard." A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications. He is frequently interviewed in the media and appears weekly on the new Fox Business Network to debate and discuss current economic and business news. His columns and opinion-editorials are published on forbes.com and in major newspapers. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.

For more information on this talk, please e-mail [email protected].

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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews now and after his talk.

Contact: Larry Benson

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213

For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at www.aynrand.org. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."