Ideas at War
Sept 12, 2002 

      IRVINE, CA--Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, spoke Monday night at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, CA, to an overflow crowd of 600 people about the cause of the failure of the War on Terrorism.

      "What has not been grasped," Dr. Brook said, "is that we face an ideological enemy. As Islamic fundamentalists, the terrorists seek destruction and death. They want to destroy America and its culture of reason, science, individualism, selfishness, capitalism--in order to pave the way for the worship of faith and suffering. They want absolute power to sacrifice the individual to state and God.

      "And unfortunately their greatest ally, and America's gravest enemy, is in our own universities. For decades a nihilist professorship has undermined America by preaching that reason is invalid, science is superstition, individualism is evil, capitalism is exploitation. What country can summon the courage to defend itself when its own intellectuals declare that it is an abominable evil that should apologize to the world and then be destroyed?

      "Without the intellectual power to resist the doctrines of the intellectuals, Bush cannot put America's defense first. He would not use America's full military might in Afghanistan because to do so was selfish--but to drop food packages over enemy territory was selfless. He praises Islam and refuses to declare Islamic fundamentalism the enemy because he admires faith and dares not label any form of religion the enemy. He waits for coalitions and world sanction before taking action because he believes he needs the approval of the group; he lacks the moral courage to stand alone."

      What has been the result of America's unwillingness to defend herself? The Islamic fundamentalists, including al Qaeda, are largely unharmed, plotting further American death.

      "The only way to win the war," Dr Brook said, "is to first defend America from the nihilists at home. But to do so we need the only philosophy that has provided a full defense and validation of America's ideals of reason, freedom, capitalism--Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism."

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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please e-mail media@aynrandcenter.org

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