 Wokeism in all its variations is losing right now, you know, to school board members in San Francisco, San Francisco, the most leftist place on planet Earth. What we called voted out because they were worried during COVID. You know what the main concern of the school board in San Francisco was during COVID? Not getting kids back to school, not making sure that their online education was good, not any of those things. What were they concerned about? School names. They were worried about, you know, having schools named after George Washington or even Feinstein was not acceptable, you know, Senator Feinstein, there's a school named after that was not acceptable to these leftists, right? Those of you who don't know who she is, she was a pretty left senator from California. So they got kicked out because it was absurd and ridiculous. The November elections in Virginia, you know, I'm sure they mixed elements to that, but the main driving thing there was enough of the propaganda of the wokeism. You saw it in the recall now in San Francisco again, leading the way of the district attorney. Now, because he wasn't prosecuting anybody like shoplifting was okay. And we saw it in the election of the mayor of New York, again, is not great, but he's not one of these crazies and the conflict between him and the district attorney who said he didn't want to prosecute mugging. He didn't want to prosecute theft. He didn't want to prosecute only murder. He wouldn't ask for jail terms other than really violent crimes. And the mayor said no, and they fought it out and it looks like the mayor's won. And you see it in the fact that in Minneapolis, they turned down their whole idea of defund the police and that now the district attorney Philadelphia and the district attorney of Los Angeles are both again Los Angeles, right? Are both going to face recall elections because they're too permissive when it comes to crime. And Americans are not there. The Americans are not with the nutty left. And so far, they're not with the nutty right. And what we have today, what we have today is this void, this intellectual political void. Most of the American people, I don't think feel represented by what's up there, but most of the American people don't know what they want. They have no clue. And they don't have a solid set of ideas. And into this void have risen some interesting voices. Not objectivists, not our allies on everything, but allies in various areas. Whether it's, as Peter Schwartz mentioned earlier, some of the voices, was it Peter? I think it was Peter, about issues of race, McWhorter and others, whether it's Barry Weiss bringing up all the crazy woke stuff and actually proposing interesting solutions and a rational kind of voice where I might disagree with her, but you have a sense at least from her column, that you could have a debate. You could have a discussion. You could actually sit down and talk about ideas. And there were others. I mean, and part of this has to do with what I think is happening is kind of the breakdown of the mainstream media and the mainstream media actually falling apart. You know, for another talk, but I think the model of the way we structured mainstream media was a model that was appropriate for the 20th century and maybe not appropriate for modern technology where we got bombarded with news directly from direct sources over the Internet. And maybe we need some new models of media and new models of reporting, new models of delivering the news. And maybe some of that is already happening on Substack. If you follow Substack, there's some really fascinating things happening where people are actually doing reporting. Barry Weiss herself has now a reporter who goes out and actually finds the news, not just reports what other people are writing, but actually reports on events that are happening. So interesting things are happening out there in this, I think, void between the two nutty political parties or the elements within the two political parties that tend to be nutty. I don't know if nutty is a technical term, but that's the one I like to use. So I don't think globalization is going away. Russia is losing, and if you want to know why I think Russia is losing in spite of the fact that it's making territorial gains, you can ask me. But Russia is losing. I think China, ultimately, my view is in decline. Authoritarianism doesn't work. We know this. Evil is impotent. And you can see this in Russia. And the Russian economy and the Russian state has been held up by our sanction. And we withdraw even a little bit of that sanction. Much collapses. Now the bankruptcy of the left and right, if you can still use those terms, the bankruptcy of the left to right I believe is left an opportunity for us. An opportunity for new ideas. So if you ask me what am I most optimistic about right now, I am most optimistic about you. I am most optimistic about the objectivist movement. I am most optimistic about what we can do and what we are doing. Now I know, aren't there conflicts and schisms and fights and disagreements and didn't COVID show that half the objectivist community can't think and all of that is true, right? So what? That's not important. As we grow, there's going to be more disagreement. There's going to be more schisms. There's going to be more of this stuff. And the question is not what happens at the edges. The question is what happens at the heart of the movement. The question is what we do. Those of us committed to objectivism, committed to the ideas. So pay attention to those things because they're important for your life and your attitude towards this philosophy and the various institutions that exist. But as this movement grows, there are going to be a lot of different people arguing for a lot of different positions, fun and claiming to speak for objectivism. And all of us will have to make our minds what is true and what is not, who is right and who is wrong. And sometimes you'll just go, I don't care, you know, this is my life. I don't have time for this. And that's fine in some cases as well. But what I am extraordinary proud of. And I think many people here in the room should be proud of. Is the Einrann Institute. It's commitment to Einrann's ideas. It's commitment to objectivism. It's commitment to carefully, carefully applying those ideas to complex, difficult issues, whether in politics or in any other realm. And, you know, the intellectuals led by Ankar and others, I mean, they have been amazing in terms of how they've approached the issues, how they've dealt with them. And this is what you should be focused on, right? Now, listen, judge, make your own evaluations. But I am incredibly proud of the work they have done as an institute and as intellectuals. And I'll get back to the institute, but before then, think about the movement. Think about how many people, some of them in this room, have dedicated themselves, for example, to education, to schools, to apps that provide curriculum. I mean, for years we've been talking about how important education is, particularly early education, and it's happening. Objectivists have entered the field and are doing major things in the field. And it's not, they're not doing it just with objective money or objective support. They're doing it as a business and they're being successful as businesses. And in that sense, we won't see the product of it in five years or 10 years. Maybe in 20 or 30 years, you'll start seeing generations of kids coming out of these schools having studied with the curriculum that is being delivered out to millions of kids. Think about what Alex Epstein is doing and think about the potential that has. If we had 100 Alex Epstein's, Alex is defending one industry alone. Imagine if we were defending 100 industries and if they collaborated and if people started seeing a movement here defending business, innovation, science, reality, life. And they start seeing the connection between this Alex and that, you know, all these people doing what seemingly is independent work, but it's all united by a set of ideas, by a philosophy. And ask them, huh, I wonder where they get that from. And you can see what's happening in academia. You can see the work, Tara and Greg and Adam was just up here on the stage and I'm sure I'm going to miss out names, so I apologize in advance to all the people doing, I mean, Adam is one of the authorities on intellectual property rights in the world, just is. And he's an objectivist and everybody knows that. And it's that, that success in intellectual fields, which is ultimately when we gain mass, when we gain numbers, is going to start having a real impact on the world out there. The progress movement, you heard, maybe you heard from Jason Crawford earlier. It's a movement that is involved with bringing, in a sense, as I see it, maybe not as they see it, bringing enlightenment ideas to the present. And caring about progress, where we're going to go from here as a species, right? As economic progress, technological progress, scientific progress. How are we going to do? How are we going to perform? And they really care about this. And they're studying it and researching it and advocating for it. It's a beautiful thing. It didn't exist that long ago. And who better than Ayn Rand ultimately to provide a backbone for such a movement? Thank you for listening or watching The Iran Book Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbookshow.com slash support. I go to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Iran Book Show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course, subscribe. Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.