NEWS THE ATLAS SOCIETY
Issue 1 | Volume 3
www.atlassociety.org | donations@atlassociety.org
NEW DRAW MY LIFE VIDEOS OUR POPULAR CREATIVE FRANCHISE of Draw My Life videos continues to expand with two new releases: “My Name is Frederick Douglass” and “My Name is Victimhood.” Both attracting over one million views each. Viewing is one thing — engagement is another, and together both videos received over 150,000 engagements, comments and shares. The choice of Douglass as subject is both a departure — no mention of Ayn Rand — and an extension: If ever there was a personification of Objectivist principles such as individualism, achievement, and liberty it’s Douglass. Victimhood, by contrast, is portrayed as a seductive villain who turns “grief into grievance,” handing out “victim cards” that provide a sense of moral superiority — and a means to political power. But we’re putting “Victimhood” on notice — with production of “My Name is Gratitude” coming soon. Also stay tuned for “My Name is Socialism” and “My Name is America,” and meanwhile tune into the “NOW PLAYING” section of our website to watch the entire collection.
My Name is Frederick Douglass Released: December 13, 2018
My Name is Victimhood Released: February 27, 2019
Chip Wilson
ANNOUNCING LULULEMON FOUNDER CHIP WILSON AS ATLAS GALA HONOREE MARK YOUR CALENDARS! This year’s annual Atlas Society Gala will be held Thursday, October 10th, 2019 at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan. The evening will honor Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, who will reflect on his epic entrepreneurial journey, and the inspiration he drew from Continued on page 2, Atlas Gala
THE ATLAS SOCIETY
PROGRAMS
FINANCIAL UPDATE AND “BOARD MATCH” WE HAVE TRACTION. It’s time to scale. With the greatly expanded scope of activities at The Atlas Society, the Board of Trustees recognized that we have a unique opportunity in 2019 to expand operations and grow our successful programs. Toward that end they directed increased investment in development specifically, with newly hired, dedicated fundraising staff focused on donor engagement. We’ve The Atlas Society is increasing outreach launched a campaign to to individuals at all levels. Recently, increase outreach to individuals volunteers for The Atlas Society worked at all levels, including grassroots the booth at LibertyCon 2019 in donors, with a commitment Washington, D.C. to sharing our vision, inviting feedback, and asking for support. Our goal is to both increase overall revenues and significantly grow our net base of contributors this year and beyond. To that end, and as a new incentive, our board has generously offered to MATCH any new or renewed gift, dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 per contributor. That means your impact could be DOUBLED for gifts this year. Please note that this match will be applied to any dollar amount above and beyond a contributor’s gift from 2018, and in full for any new supporters, or those who graciously decide to renew their support from before 2017 or who may have missed giving in the last two years. For those of you who have not already spoken with our new Director of Development, Lucy Croxton – you should expect to hear from her in the coming months. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact her directly at lucy@atlassociety.org with any questions, concerns, feedback, or anything else you would like to discuss.
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ATLAS GALA
Gloria Alvarez Ayn Rand. We’re also thrilled to announce author and international activist Gloria Alvarez as our keynote speaker. One of the most passionate and compelling advocates for free markets and free people, Gloria is a Guatemalan Political Scientist and International Affairs laureate from the University Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, with postgraduate studies on International Development and Economics from Georgetown University, Ku Leuven in Belgium, and La Sapienza in Rome. Tickets go on pre-sale Monday, April 22nd. For more information or to purchase your ticket TODAY, please visit our website — www.atlassociety.org — or reference the attached form. You may also reach out to Lucy Croxton directly at (336) 624-6136 or by email at lucy@atlassociety.org.
2019 NEWSLETTER
MEDIA
ON CAMPUS AND AT STUDENT CONFERENCES
SOCIAL MEDIA THE ATLAS SOCIETY’S PRESENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA continued to gain steadily over the past quarter with our Facebook audience growing by 10%, Twitter by 13%, and Instagram by 31%. But the real impact is not in the size of our footprints on these platforms, but in the ratio of engagement — people commenting, liking, and sharing our content. The Atlas Society’s engagement rate is greater — by both aggregate and perpost metrics — than other liberty organizations many times our size, while exponentially outperforming much larger Objectivist outfits. How? With provocative, bite-sized content, such as videos, memes, and polls, that strikes a nerve and captures the imagination. To promote more in-depth exploration of philosophical themes, we’ve developed and launched a new tool for our social media followers: the Journey for Advanced Engagement. Now, we are linking select memes and videos to deeper-dive resources — essays, lectures, ebooks and audiobooks, or to the collected writings of Ayn Rand — that is to full-length analyses of such topics as socialism, individualism versus collectivism, envy, capitalism, selfishness as a virtue, regulation, freedom, money, and more.
TAS 2019 IS UNDERWAY, demand for Atlas Society speakers at campus events has continued to grow. Recent and upcoming events include: •
Senior Scholar Stephen Hicks, Ph. D. addressed “Why Do Socialists Hate Us?” at YALCON 2019 in Washington DC–January
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CEO Jennifer Grossman discussed “Envy: The Root of All Evil?” at the Philadelphia YALCON–April
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Founder David Kelley, Ph. D. examined “The Case for Individualism” at South Texas College–April
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CEO Jennifer Grossman at Chapman University in California–April
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Senior Scholar Stephen Hicks, Ph. D. discussed “The Moral Case(s) for Liberal Capitalism at the Northern Illinois University’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter in DeKalb, Illinois–February
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Senior Editor Marilyn Moore, Ph. D. will explore the relationship between “Envy and Social Justice” at the Northern Illinois University’s YAL chapter in DeKalb, Illinois–April Continued on page 4
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THE ATLAS SOCIETY
PROGRAMS
EXPANDING ATLAS SOCIETY LIBRARY IN PRINT & ON AUDIBLE THE ATLAS SOCIETY PROUDLY ANNOUNCES three new print and audio publications. Truth and Toleration in Objectivism is Atlas Society founder David Kelley, Ph. D.’s seminal defense of Open Objectivism originally published in 1990. Having already produced an audio version of Truth and Toleration, The Atlas Society has now updated and published a print version of the third edition of Dr. Kelley’s original work, now available on Amazon, which contains new reflections on how Objectivism has evolved as an integral part of the liberty movement of the 21st century. Ayn Rand and Business Ethics, by our Senior Scholar Stephen Hicks, Ph. D., makes the case that the core principles of business are the same core principles of a sound moral system: “Business is about production and trade. Production is a consequence of individuals’ taking responsibility for their lives and exercising rational judgment about their needs and how to fulfill them. At a time when the popular appeal of socialism is on the rise, Hicks’ moral case for capitalism is needed more urgently than ever. Originally a four-part series online, the new paperback version is being distributed at conferences, and offered for sale on Amazon, and sold on Amazon and Audible. George H. Smith’s Ayn Rand and Altruism, originally a five-part online series, is now available in print, ebook, and Audible versions. Smith highlights a significant similarity — and polarity — between the definition of altruism coined by French philosopher Auguste Comte and that of Ayn Rand, observing: “Duties normally entail corresponding rights, so to argue that we have a moral duty to sacrifice our own interests to the interests of other people is implicitly to maintain that others have a right to such sacrifices. And from this position it is a short and virtually inevitable step to demand that a government enforce those ‘rights.’”
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Student Programs Director Jessica Josefchuk screened “My Name is Victimhood” at the first ever Defending Freedom Action Summit presented by Students for Self-Defense–April
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Student Advocate Leonard Robinson will screen “My Name is Envy” at a Prager University event at the University of Georgia in Athens–April
Additionally, recruits to our pilot initiative, Atlas Advocates, have represented The Atlas Society at dozens of campus organizational fairs, and engaged fellow members of their campus chapters of various liberty-oriented student activism organizations, hosting “movie nights” to watch our Draw My Life videos or the ANTHEM animated series and guiding conversation around our ANTHEM: The Graphic Novel. Our most promising Atlas Advocates will travel to Malibu for our first Atlas Advocates Retreat June 28 - 30. Stephen Hicks, Ph. D. will conduct full-day seminars, while students will also have the opportunity for Q&A with planned special guests including Academy Awardwinning screenwriter, director and producer Randall Wallace and Peter Copses, Co-Founder of Apollo Global Management.
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