Campaign Against Servitude

The Ayn Rand Institute is dedicated to the advancement of the understanding of the philosophy of Objectivism and its principal tenets: reason, egoism, and capitalism.

Grounded in and inspired by this philosophy, ARI is morally opposed to the meaning and purpose of President Clinton's "Summit on America's Future" which was held in Philadelphia the last weekend of April. In a radio address on April 5, 1997, Mr. Clinton called for "a renewed sense of obligation, a new sense of duty, a new season of service" for Americans. Clinton wants hundreds of thousands of Americans (especially the young) giving their time, their energy, their future, their lives -- to serve others. He has already embraced Maryland's requirement that high school students perform community service in order to graduate.

Mr. Clinton's call for American servitude is an inversion of the principles on which this nation was established: an individual's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as envisioned and championed by the Founding Fathers. In response, the Ayn Rand Institute launched a major campaign in opposition to President Clinton's attempt to induce servitude. Some key elements of this campaign were:

• Sending three Op-Eds written by leading Objectivists to 190 of America's major newspapers
• Using a wire service to send out press releases to more than 2,000 newsrooms across the country
• Holding a press conference in Philadelphia the day before the Service Summit begins
• Staging -- in coordination with the Coalition of Students against Servitude -- three protests against Mr. Clinton and other luminaries in Philadelphia
• Attacking the philosophy of servitude and explaining the Objectivist alternative through articles on this web site
• Promoting a petition against Mr. Clinton's goals and proposals on this web site for Americans to register their protest against them

We hope you read further on this site for more material on these issues and our campaign. We hope you join us to help fight for our freedom. Tell other Americans about this battle. Tell them that it can only be fought with a better morality -- one that pronounces that an individual owns his own life -- every sacred minute of it.

NOTE: ARI is trying to track all media coverage of this campaign. If you run across any mentions of ARI or this campaign please drop us a line letting us know. All such correspondence should be directed to Scott McConnell (scottm@aynrand.org). Clippings can be sent to:

The Ayn Rand Institute
2121 Alton Pkwy, Suite 250
Irvine, CA 92606