As mentioned in a previous post, for the past several months, I have been running an Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand book study group using the study guide by Gary Hull. The basic format of the group is for the participants to read OPAR, starting at the begning. Every other week, we meet on Sundays at a local coffee shop and answer the OPAR study guide questions as a group for that particular section of OPAR. This format has kept the discussion fairly on focus. There are a couple of people that are fairly new to Ayn Rand’s philosophy, and they seem to be learning a lot, and there are also folks participating that have been studying her ideas for many years.
If you are trying to put together some sort of group on a budget this is the way to go. In the past 10 years, coffee shops have proliferated across America, so they make ideal meeting places, especially if you can find one that isn’t that busy at the time of the day that your OPAR group meets. Use of the Internet (another thing that has grown a lot in the past 10 years) also makes it easy to keep group members updated on meeting times and locations. I recommend creating a yahoo groups page for your OPAR study group, as well as a blogspot. Both of these Internet services are free. I also recommend that you make the posts on the yahoo group’s page available only to group members, this allows you to keep meeting times and locations somewhat secret, thereby helping to ensure that you can control who comes to the meetings. (This is important because you might otherwise get the occasional obnoxious individual who simply wants to disrupt the meetings, and doesn’t have a sincere interest in learning about Ayn Rand’s philosophy.) The only money costs involved are the costs of the book and the study guide, all of which can be had for under $20. The only other major cost involved is the need for the group to have an organizer, who has sufficient commitment to find the meeting locations, send out meeting announcements, and act as a “contact” for people that are interested in joining the discussion group. One other small outlay of money and time that I suggest you make is to print out some fliers describing the group, and giving contact information. Go to the local universities and community colleges and post them wherever you can. Interest in Ayn Rand’s philosophy is going to be higher on college campuses than probably any other single place. You can also post these fliers at local bookstores and coffee shops.
I used to hear a left-wing environmentalist slogan that actually makes some sense when applied to spreading Objectivist ideas. It was something like: “Think globally, act locally.” Similarly, I think that you can make a significant contribution to our “cause” by starting a local OPAR group like this.
You can check out my group’s Internet presence at:
). The reports about the number of people who have shown up for Todd’s meetings certainly impressed me. We rarely had that many people show up regardless as to how knowledgeable about Objectivism they were. So long as people are not actively attacking Objectivists or trying to proselytize, I usually enjoy socializing with most people who are Ayn Rand fans but are not necessarily very knowledgeable about Objectivism. So one of these months, I will probably make it over to one of Todd’s social gatherings. But I am also very glad that someone is also making an effort to hold events for people who are knowledgeable about Objectivism or are serious about becoming knowledgeable. I wish it were possible right now for me to offer more than mere moral support.