Defending Free Speech

Selected Commentary by the Ayn Rand Institute

By: Steve Simpson - editor, Onkar Ghate - contributor, Leonard Peikoff - contributor, Elan Journo - contributor

Narrated by: Chris Abell

Freedom of speech is indispensable to a free and civilized society, yet this precious right is increasingly under attack today.

Islamic totalitarians repeatedly threaten and kill those deemed blasphemers while our political leaders stand idly by - and many intellectuals blame the victims. College students seek "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" from controversial ideas. The government harasses tea party groups, preventing them from speaking out during an election, and it investigates oil companies and advocacy groups for the "crime" of dissenting from climate change orthodoxy.

Why is this happening? What can be done?

This hard-hitting collection provides answers. Applying Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism to the most pressing free speech issues of the day, the essays in this book reveal the attacks on free speech to be the product of destructive ideas - ideas that are eroding Western culture at its foundation. They expose those ideas and the individuals who hold them, and, importantly, they identify the only ideas on which Western civilization can be sustained: reason, egoism, and individual rights.

©2016 The Ayn Rand Institute (P)2018 Blackstone Publishing

Forceful

This hits you like a breath of salty air. The force of the statements & demands are real & not pretentious.

Outstanding!

The book covers topics that have only gotten more serious since it was written. Free speech is a moral right.