 Thank you everybody. Thank you for being here. We might want to close the doors because there's a lot of noise coming in from the outside So they have to make a choice in life inside or outside. There's no Sitting on the fence and objectivism I hope you all having a good time today I'm a little grumpy. I have to admit I Got so many questions and so many people surrounding me and wanting to argue about anarchy Which I always get right that I didn't have any lunch. So you know beware Right. I know feel sorry for me so last November I was in Europe and I was walking around I think I was in Prague and I was walking around Prague and Suddenly I saw this exhibit. It was out in the street. These big these big kind of poster things that were out in the street and They were all about they were all about the fall of the Berlin Wall and it kind of suddenly struck me That here we are in Europe at the end of last year and It's 30 years to the fall of the Berlin Wall and While you hear a little bit talk about this, this is a monumental event one of the most positive Events of the entire 20th century a fundamental shift Millions tens of millions of people Suddenly becoming free the fall and the complete abandonment of communism in Eastern Europe in what was called the Soviet Union So just 30 years ago where we are standing right now 30 years and a bit right This country was a communist country Here in Warsaw was an oppressive Communist regime that cared nothing for the rate of individuals And it's hard really to comprehend the kind of changes that have happened over the last 30 years many of you are too young to remember and Some of us Weren't here those of us who are older tended not to be here We were in other places around the world and while we felt the shock of the fall of the Berlin Wall We appreciate it was removed. We didn't really it's not visible So then probably not many people here Or of the age who actually experienced that change in the countries where it happened so authoritarianism Was destroyed in Europe about 30 years ago Much of it by the way started here in Poland since we're on Warsaw by the solidarity movement actually exactly 40 years ago in 1980 solidarity becomes a force in Poland and it grows and it's to a large extent I think responsible ultimately for the fall of the entire Soviet bloc and there were a lot of people in the Berlin Wall fell Okay, what do we learn from this? Well, obviously obviously they said at the time Communism is a failure Communism is bad We don't want communism because even the people who are somewhat sympathetic to communism came and they saw what Poland looked like After the fall of the Berlin Wall they came and saw what East Germany looked like after communism and they said oh my god It's such poverty and filth and it's such a horrible thing that we know we don't want and intellectuals You know try to figure out. Okay. What does this mean? What is the future because? The way the 20th century had been framed was about this battle if you will between authoritarianism and freedom Fascism was defeated and our communism was defeated. So what's left? and Indeed in one of the most famous books of the latter part of the 20th century a scholar by the name of Fukuyama declared the end of history The major conflict is over Because we won Freedom I put it in quotes freedom one Communism is defeated fascism is defeated Authoritarianism is defeated. It's gone and what's left is What he called liberal democracy Or what I would call the mixed economy in our terms in objective as terms some freedom The freedom of the individual when I talk about freedom I talk about individual freedom your freedom as an individual to pursue your values based on your rational mind So some freedom and some authoritarianism some Force coercion used by the state against you that mixture Fukuyama told us in I think it was 1992 or 93 That had one it was the end But the fact is that that mixture is not sustainable You cannot mix authoritarianism with freedom and Find some magical balance between the two that sustains us into the future Many of us I think if I remember back then hoped That this moment where authoritarianism had be defeated would be the moment in which we recognize what freedom really means what freedom really stands for and reject those authoritarian elements within our societies and really achieve freedom the freedom of the individual To be left alone to pursue his own values using his own mind and yet that of course is not what happened What has happened is this mixture persists and if anything if anything the authoritarian part of that mixture has increased in influence and Indeed we live in a Europe today and in a world today Where people are not necessarily rejecting authoritarianism we're here in Poland a beacon of hope 30 years ago Which today is maybe a beacon pointing in a very different direction in a direction of more government more authoritarian government Government that is wants to dictate the choices individuals make more and more and more Eastern Europe a place that experienced communism that experienced authoritarianism experienced the horror of the Soviet Union is Maybe not choosing to be communist But it's certainly not choosing to be free Again if free means not some political freedom the Montenegrins have from the Serbians, which is okay, I guess But the freedom of the individual to make choices for himself within Montenegro within Poland or within Hungary that freedom is disappearing is shrinking and The state is becoming more and more powerful and the Ideologies of a more and more powerful state from both right and left Primarily I'd say in Eastern Europe on the right are becoming stronger and more sort of and more dominant So history it turns out Did not end with the fall of the building wall the challenge the conflict between two Views of the world between individualism the sanctity of the individual the individuals right to live his life and Collectivism the preeminence of the group above the individual of the group being more important individual as the group being the thing That the individual should be sacrificed towards that conflict sadly tragically is Alive and well and it's shocking that it's alive and well Because we've seen the consequences What is communism Communism is a form of collectivism that says that the individual is meaningless and must be sacrificed to a group which group Well the proletarian that happens to be the group the communists decided to sacrifice you as an individual to Fascism is another form of collectivism That says that we must sacrifice the individual to which group Well, it depends on the version of fascism you adhere to if you're a Nazi you're being sacrificed the Aryan race If your other forms of fascism you're being sacrificed to the state whatever that happens to be but All forms of fascism and communism all share the same attribute The you as an individual don't matter Your life doesn't matter your values your choices don't matter your mind Your reasoning faculty doesn't matter what matters is the group and how we can use you for the sake of the group Both of those have been tried and both have been Disasters for human life for human flourishing for human success for individual lives. They have been disasters We know that we studied in history. We see it. Oh But next time We'll figure out a way to sacrifice individuals to the group that are actually work Everybody tells us. Oh No, we need to do it to I don't know the family maybe in Poland. I'm making this up, right? There's some kind of conservative Catholic version of collectivism Oh, we need to do it to a different state not the state that Mussolini thought but a new state that some new Or bond or whatever in Hungary dictates that we should sacrifice towards or to Russia if If it's Putin, right? But what has not been challenged what is still prevalent out there, which is still dominant out there is this idea of collectivism and most countries Have this balance that they try to do Well, we know we can't sacrifice you to the collective to the same Extent as the communists and the fascists did we kind of like to but we can't get away with that So well sacrifice you to a smaller extent in more limited ways We'll still give you the pretense that you're free. You'll still get a vote in elections But we'll shrink the scope of your choices will shrink the scope in which you can apply your free will your values your mind To what we decide in the name of what? I don't know make America great again or in the name of this state or that state or this group or that group or But you as an individual You know, we'll give you a little bit of freedom so you don't feel too bad That's the lesson they learned from coming in from the fall of communism They learned from the fall of fascism is we don't want to exaggerate the collectivism We'll just do a little bit of it But I read identified a long time ago That when you compromise and you try to mix freedom With authoritarianism if you try to mix them up it can only go in one direction or the other mixed economies can either become freer or less free they can't stay and Unless there's a real movement towards making them freer They will become more authoritarian. They will become more collectivistic They will become more oppressive to the individual and whether it's ideology from the left or ideology from the right From Brussels or from Warsaw from Washington DC or in China What we're tending to see today is adrift backwards The unlearning of the lessons about the evils of collectivism and arise in collectivism and tribalism And we have to ask ourselves why Why didn't we learn the lesson? I mean Thinkers have been advocating for freedom for well over a century three centuries since enlightenment Economists have explained the workings of a free market and why it's a better system than any other system For a hundred years. Certainly the Austrians have been doing it since call Mingo in the 1880s We've had great economists. We have great political theorists. We have a Political understanding of what freedom looks like versus The authoritarian nature of the state and what it can do to all of us and yet it doesn't seem to matter We seem to drift towards authoritarian not learn the lessons of history not learn anything And again, we must ask ourselves why why don't we learn and the reason for that is That we're not asking the right questions And we're not dealing with the issues at the right level the question of politics is subservient to the question of morality Answering the question what you heard this morning in a sense the challenge between altruism and egoism Is the fundamental question that shapes everybody's attitudes towards politics? Because if you're an altruist if you really believe that the purpose of life is to serve others if you really believe that other people Should be your moral focus other people Should be who you should be spending time helping and serving and assisting and that people who pursue their own self-interest They're evil or bad and That they if they accumulate a lot of money what they should do is give back help other people Sacrifice if possible and the more they sacrifice the more noble and virtuous and good they are Then what kind of political system are you gonna want? What kind of political system is consistent with that if You don't matter if individuals don't matter Morally, then how can they matter politically they can't and they don't so our morality of altruism necessitates some form of Authoritarianism some form of collectivism Now different forms of altruism depending on who you're sacrificing towards will generate a Different type of collectivism, but they always generate a collectivism because you're placing others that group over there above your own interests They are ruling you whether you want to admit it or not They are dictating your life whether you want to admit it or not the battle The political battle for liberty the political battle for freedom the political battle for capitalism The lesson learnt from the fall of communism Have to do with morality not politics as long as we hold the Christian secularized view That life is to be sacrificed for the sake of others That my own happiness is not my moral goal or should not be my moral It's something you can do on the side when you have time You know pursue happiness a little bit here and they buy some self-help books on the side as long as you're Investing enough in other people and helping them and that's really where you get your morality from yeah You can do it a little bit As long as we hold any kind of view that says others or what's important you Not that important You cannot have freedom you will not have political freedom. It's not tenable Because you're placing the center of focus the group who you must sacrifice towards and They should dictate your life because they know what you need to do and not to sacrifice for them and look Fascist socialist communist status generally a really good at sacrifice They're really good at choosing a group to sacrifice to other groups That's what they do and nobody sees that as problematic with sacrifice is noble sacrifice is virtuous sacrifice is good And this is why in my view For those of you who believe in liberty and capitalism and freedom all the different varieties that I know here exist in terms of way you come from and how you perceive liberty and freedom the only way to be successful The only way we can achieve a future of freedom is to ground it on a basis of a morality of Individualism a morality of egoism a morality of self-interest because you know run the thought experiment imagine a world of individuals Who are selfish? Selfish in the sense we heard today selfish in the sense of having real virtues and values that are leading to their own success at life leading towards happiness leading to what's flourishing as a human being individuals like that use their mind use their rational capacity To plan out their lives to plan their careers to choose their purpose To build a life to build the values to create a hierarchy of values and pursue those values and make them their own and Central to that central to rands morality central to the ethics of rational selfishness is Reason being rational Now what does rationality require? I mean requires effort requires engagement. It requires focus But in a social context in a political context in your what does rationality require? In order for me to pursue my values in order for me to figure out what my values even are What must I be? What is the one enemy of reason the one enemy of force? What incapacitates your mind? What turns it off? force corrosion So many of you here might have heard of the non-aggression principle Which is not a principle, but a non-aggression principle is really just a mediocre way of articulating Inran's point That the mind cannot function under force if I put a gun to the back of your head You cannot think Thinking is meaningless. All you do is either die or follow my orders. That's it There's no thinking and Think about this in real life If I'm the government and I say I don't know I'm the food and drug administration in America and I say I Don't believe in life extension. I don't know if you know this but a Long time ago President Bush appointed a commission to look into life extension technologies And the commission came back and said yeah, we don't like it. We don't like life expansion. Why don't I like life expansion? It's playing God with human genes They had a whole they had a list of reasons why life extension was no good things like What about so security it'll go bankrupt? I mean how Insane as that you have to die so it's so security doesn't go bankrupt talk about collectivism or Here's one for family values Divorce rates will go up It's true. It's in the document, right? I mean you can live with the same woman for like 50 years, but a hundred. Oh my god. That's impossible So everybody will get divorced so you have to die so the divorce rates won't go up This is the kind of mentality a collectivist has This is a document that the US government produced in order to say we're not interested in life extension technology Okay, so let's assume you're a scientist out here and you you have an idea for a new technology a pill Treatment that will extend life significantly And you happen to live in the United States because that's where the story is right What are you gonna do with that idea? What what can you do with that thinking? Where does it take you? It's a dead end. No venture capitalist will fund you Nobody's gonna come to work for you because it's never gonna get approved by the government And now I know companies that have done life extension and no venture capitalist will give them money because they say they have Not interested therefore they've shrunk the scope of our thinking if you're a scientist Don't think about life extension because you can't do it. So what's the point of doing it like Galileo, right? What did they do to him? He you know He had a outrageous idea that the earth goes around the Sun not the other way around right and that contradicted a statement in the Bible So they put him in house arrest Now in house arrest you think Galileo had new thoughts about new theories and new idea I mean no, I mean if he if he mistakenly Said something about that they might have burned him at the stake So better shut down your thinking better constrain your ideas. Don't think out of the box if the government is defining the box If force is defining that box So force is the enemy of the human mind So I'm an individualist. I Want my own happiness. I want to be able to think my thoughts I want to be able to act on my thoughts. I want to be able to pursue my values in a rational way Well, what kind of government do I want? What kind of world do I want to live in? I want to live in a world in which force is Not a means by which we interact where force is banned from human interaction. I want to live in a world that is What's the word starts with an F Free I Want to live in a free world and what does freedom mean because freedom is like one of these Slippery terms that you know, you got you ask any audience anywhere in the world whether they're Marxist fascist whatever You know Anybody believe in freedom every hand in the room goes up because everybody has their own weird definition of freedom But in this context, what's important about freedom It's not that you can do whatever you want Irrespective of metaphysics, which is the way some left us to find freedom. I want to fly and I can't so I'm not free No in this context freedom means The ability to pursue your rational values With no coercion no force applied to you Nobody restricting you nobody stopping you using force. That's what freedom means So individuals who care about themselves care about their own values. They want to be free Because that's what they values require. They require their ability to use their mind So You shouldn't be an egoist because you're a capitalist You should be a capitalist because you're an egoist that is your life comes first I should be able to convince you to be an egoist not because I'm pro-capitalism I should be able to convince you to be an egoist because you have one life Once shot at it every second that passes that you don't focus on making your life The best that it can be will never come back again and is gone into the ether. It has disappeared Your life is yours It's nobody's Other than yours to make What you decide to make of it You shouldn't be an egoist because you have this one life because What's the point of living if not to be happy to be successful to flourish to enjoy life If we could convince people to be egoistic Then what they want is freedom Because it's the only appropriate Kind of political life that an egoist would want that is consistent with you pursuing your own values Now what do we call what do we call that condition that says that you are free to pursue your values free of coercion There is a concept that we have that captures that idea That the government's job is to protect your freedom to act in pursuit of your rational values. What do we what's that concept? Rights that's individual rights The idea of individual rights is the idea that you have the freedom Because your life is your own because your mind is your own to live your life based on your own mind In pursuit of your happiness in pursuit of your goals Free of coercion. That's what individual rights are And a free and an egoistic person Once a government that does only one thing and by the way, there has to be a government I know you're out there There has to be one objective monopoly over the use of force That protects that right And that right is not negotiable It's not you have an interpretation and I have an interpretation and let's figure it out. Let's negotiate between us Like no, it's either it is or it isn't In an objective sense And that is the job of government is to protect our rights and nothing else Which means fine-rand, but really for every rational egoist Government should do Very little police Judiciary and military And that's it It means government doesn't do trade deals Government doesn't have trade policy I mean government doesn't run the economy It doesn't have an economic policy It doesn't have a treasury department Not in the sense that we understand it today It doesn't have an education department or a health department or any of these functions That if anything seem to be growing today In much of the west Because it's not about what's good for the group and how do we sacrifice those Number of individuals for the sake of this group No, it's about keeping every individual free Again to pursue their happiness So I guess the bottom line is and you know I'm sure you'll have questions In the context of today What's crucial and important is The role of ethics in The role of ethics and philosophy generally In politics Most of us a lot of us a lot of I know a lot of the young people here are motivated by the politics of it They want to be free, they want to be left alone They want to Ethics that's for religion or that's for philosophers But that's where the action is That's what's important That is where you can really change the world And indeed in my view Until we change the culture's view of morality Until we reject altruism like we reject the communism and fascism Until altruism is viewed as evil Just like communism and fascism Just like communism and fascism should be viewed You will not have liberty You will not have freedom Freedom rests on a foundation of egoism Rests on a foundation of selfishness In the Randian sense Now This is why I think Iron Rand is so important This is why I think Iron Rand Is going to be the most important figure In any future That involves real freedom Because Iron Rand is the only thinker out there Who doesn't just present us with a political vision Doesn't just present us with a new economic But she gives us A philosophical foundation for that freedom She gives us a philosophical foundation of how to live Politics is just an application Just one of the applications An important one of how to live And without a philosophical foundation Without a solid grounding in ethics No political system will hold up No freedom will sustain itself And indeed the reason the world is heading again Towards more authoritarianism We're moving away from freedom We're forgetting the lessons of communism Is because we never defeated altruism We never crushed the idea that your life Is to be sacrificed for somebody else The idea of altruism was never challenged So the end of history will come Only when egoism is victorious over altruism So study your Iron Rand Get the word out there in your various countries These are the most important ideas These are the foundations of any future liberty movement And if we want to win First you have to win the battle within you To establish yourself as an independent thinking Happy person And then help make the rest of humanity such And when everybody else is convinced of that Freedom will be obvious to everybody It will be self-evident Who the hell has self-esteem independent Thinking person wants to be told what to do How to live Nobody So the core is one person at the time The core is philosophical And the core is ethics So a rallying call shouldn't just be capitalism I mean my favorite rallying call Is in my favorite political document of all time My favorite political document is The Declaration of Independence of the United States It's what drew me to move to the United States And the rallying call is That what we're fighting for Is not just a particular political system But at the end of the day If you fully understand what we're fighting for Is your inalienable right As an individual human being To your own life Which means to take the actions you deem necessary To live your life successfully, rationally To your own liberty Which means you have the right to think, produce Based on those thoughts Without anybody being able to intervene Using coercion or force or authority on you And in the most selfish political statement In all of human history Every single one of us As human beings have an inalienable right To pursue our own happiness When people get that We win Thank you Alright, Ilan is going to join me for the Q&A We've got a mic No, we've got a camera where there was a mic Is there a mic? Yeah, there's a mic I see it Yeah, just start Yeah, hello, how are you? Good Hungry, but otherwise good Because there is a lot of students from Balkan around here I think it would be nice to hear more about Global Balkanization concepts from you Yes, I mean I talked about this a lot For those of you who were there last year At the Objectives Conference in Prague The theme then was tribalism versus individualism And we talked about Balkanization But I mean Balkanization The whole, I mean I apologize to the Montenegrens But it is what it is This whole idea that Montenegro needs to be a state That 600,000 people who think themselves Montenegrens Need to be a separate state Then those people who think of themselves as Macedonians From those people who think of themselves as Serbs Is defining yourself based on a tribe Defining yourself based on non-essentials I mean I would go the opposite Of I know many of you again Many of the anarchists in the room I want fewer states, not more states I don't think one state is good Because one state is no competition And if you're stuck with a bad state, that's it But what you want is one system of law Hopefully a good objective system of law That defines how you deal in a particular geographic area And to split it up into little enclaves Of different legal systems and different currencies And different economic policies Is just, it's wrong And it's again the standard of splitting it up is what My little tribe Which means I don't matter Not the individual, what matters is the tribe So all the Catalonians in the audience Cut it out, right? I mean there's huge benefits to you being in Spain And I fear that if Catalonia splits off It would become more socialist in Spain Not less socialist in Spain So the only reason to secede Is to secede towards more freedom How many countries have actually ever seceded Towards more freedom? The United States of America Did Singapore secede? I don't think so Maybe, right? It's rare, right? Singapore maybe Maybe there's a few others, right? It's rare Usually people secede Because they want to be with their tribe So I'd say that I mean there's a lot more to say Iron Man has a fantastic essay Written in the 60s Called Global Balkanization Where she predicts exactly What's going to happen in the Balkans And she talks about the phenomena Being kind of worldwide And a return to tribalism And a rejection of individualism And my fear is that We're heading more and more and more Towards tribalism And away from individualism Thank you Hi again So you said that The government should not be involved In things such as education, trade And things like that Especially here in Europe There's very strong education systems If we look at the Nordic countries We look at Finland Who has some of the best education And I think for a lot of us here Especially we are students And it does open the mind It allows us to have access To education that without it It really does open up New opportunities So how do you guys think Because I feel like there is a bit of a gap That I did not understand What do we do with these different things The government isn't taking care of education Trade, etc. What happens How should that happen in countries So let me do an easy one Before I get to education Because education is marginally Tiny bit harder Trade is easy, right So I like to buy Apple products I buy iPhones I buy this It came out I know, thank you I don't know how I missed it In my speech itself But anyway, I always use my iPhone In my talks And those of you who have watched my talks Know that So this iPhone I bought from an Apple store The Apple store Probably bought it Got it from a warehouse Somewhere in, let's say In San Francisco That warehouse actually This was assembled in China Somewhere The parts that were assembled In this come from How many different places I think there's 60 Or 70 different countries Represented in this phone Products from 60, 70 Different countries Maybe two, 300 Different companies Make the stuff inside the phone It's all brought together to China It's assembled there Now think of all the trade That happened there I traded with Apple I traded with the subcontractors In China Who traded with subcontractors All over the world What's the government got to do With any of that? I bought something That comes from 70 different Countries And the government Only tried to interfere By charging taxes all along Why is there any of their business? Who I buy from? Right? If you're Where do you live? Czech Republic In the Czech Republic You're in Prague And you might buy something From the countryside Right? Imagine if the government said No, we don't like this countryside We only like that countryside Buy from this province Why is it any of the government's business Whether you want to buy something from Berlin Or something from Beijing Or something from New York Trade is individual We all trade Leave us alone So that's one The second about education I'll just say this You have this assumption Oh, this is what I wanted to do with the iPhone I know I wanted to do something with the iPhone Selfie? No I don't do selfies I mean, I've done like three in my life I don't like them What would this look like What would this look like If the government designed it? Yeah, I mean, every audience in the world Did I ask that question, laugh Because it's so ludicrous to think About what this would look like If the government designed it So we can't imagine a world In which iPhone is designed by government And yet it seems you can't imagine A world in which education Is not designed by government Like education is far more important In my view than iPhones Far more important to leave the government to design To leave the government to control To leave the government to monopolize And what does government do? In my talk I talked about the fact that Government shrinks our possibilities It shrinks our scope of thinking Because it's rules and regulations And it says you have to teach math this way And you have to teach reading this way And you have to do history this way And here are the books Some bureaucrat In Prague decides What all Czech kids should read What all Czech kids... Who the hell are they? Imagine if you're an entrepreneur And you have an idea of a new way of teaching Reading or a new way of doing math Or a new way of literature Whatever, right? No, you have to fit in the box That the government has created So imagine our world with no government in education And just entrepreneurs And money to be made Because people value education Or we all value education And if you worry about the poor kids Who won't get any education I like to ask how many of you would be able to Put a few dollars aside every month to support kids Who are too poor to get an education And can't afford it themselves And almost every hand in the room Ways up and I say Why do we need government? You just voluntarily will fund education For the kids who can't afford it But let's have competition Let's have innovation Let's have entrepreneurs Let's have the same spirit Energy, excitement That goes into this Go into education So I can't imagine Government doing education Because I see the results of it Not that great, right? I can't imagine why anybody Want government to do healthcare Really important stuff, right? The only thing government is good at Because what is the essence of government? Force, it's good at force So the question is What do you want it to force? Not education Force is not good in education Is force good in healthcare? No good in healthcare Force good in technology? Those of you in the technology world know No good in technology Where's force good? But as you're living in the States though You know that the prices for healthcare Are very expensive So will that also happen in education? But I have no capitalism in healthcare In the United States And while my prices are high Your prices are higher You just don't measure them Because you pay them in taxes Who provides you with healthcare? My school Yeah, so you get it for free So somebody's paying for it There's no such thing as Milton Friedman said It's true, no such thing as a free lunch Somebody pays for it You might not feel it directly But somebody's paying for it And don't use the United States As an example of capitalism It's a mixed economy just like Europe Just a slightly different mixture And certainly in healthcare Well over 50% of all the dollars Spelt in healthcare in the United States Are government spent And in America When the government spends money on anything Prices go up When you spend money in the private sector Prices tend to go down If we actually have a private healthcare system Everything would look very different We don't Which is sad I'd still take my American healthcare system On any of yours Can I add something to the education question? Yes I think the point you made about its importance I think is really, really significant So this is a separate issue But it's really related to what you're raising It's precisely because education is so valuable And so important And it's indispensable It's something that if you have children I think it's probably your responsibility To make sure that they're provided with At least a minimum education Reading and writing But it's so important And one thing that's not recognized When government is running education Is the way in which Bad ideas False ideas Become dogma And they become entrenched And so if you're asking yourself How can I change the world A lot of the challenges that we face So this was part of Ankar's presentation this morning There are a lot of bad ideas And false ideas everywhere today And a major reason they continue to be around And people take them seriously Is that there's an institution The education system from kindergarten Through college and graduate school That is pushing ideas into people's minds That are completely wrong So you made the point about We've had thinkers in political philosophy We've had thinkers in economics And this stuff is known But it's not taught I mean there's so much that's So knowledge can be lost Because it's not shared with people It's not developed It's not expanded And Ayn Rand wrote the book Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal This was in the 1960s And it's still true It's unknown And there's a deliberate effort Not to tell people what capitalism really is How it works Why it's valuable And the reason for that A major reason is that the intellectual world Which is what education is a big part of Is pushing us towards Well we have to socialize societies We have to bring in controls And all of that is That's a hard thing to fight And if you want to fight it It's crucial to change the education system And free it Because when you free the education system You have different schools And they'll teach different things But they won't have a monopoly On what people are taught And if you want If you want to know If you want to have an intellectual monopoly Look at the dark ages When the church and religion Dominated people's lives That's essentially what the education system Is doing It controls what people believe And what they're taught And it's very hard to get outside that That's one of the things We're trying to challenge people to do Is to rethink their basic premises And where do you get that? Well you get it For 12 plus years of education Systematically drummed into you And so if you wanted an extra reason To advocate for liberating school And education everywhere Not just where you live but everywhere This is one of them You want people to learn the truth And it's crucial to clear away The debris and the falsehoods That education is a big part of pushing But if you don't have some sort of standard Isn't there the risk of like Religious groups? We've got people behind us Sorry Let me just say one thing about follow-ups We want you to have a follow-up But why don't you do like a quick one And then go to the back to answer You had one follow-up Just join us at the back And we'll cycle through people Thank you I'll just say quickly about a standard There was no standard to making this I mean the industry creates a standard Supply and demand creates a standard Objective reality creates a standard If you provide a lousy product and education Nobody will consume it But today we have no choice Because the government Has a monopoly over it basically Yes hello My question is regarding government It's ethical in nature that question So I'm wondering what the justification is For a monopoly on the use of force What would a limited government Philosopher say is the justification For me to secede from the protection That the government in a limited government Type of country is providing me What if I want my personal bodyguards My drones and my security agency Providing it for me And just like today countries are I get it Wait one second Yes I understand Today governments make agreements With each other voluntarily And it's called international law There is no world government There is an anarchy today Between the government So why can't I secede from the protection My government is providing me And say I will do it myself And we will make agreements with each other So first there's no international anarchy That is bizarre that there's an international anarchy To the extent that there is There's warfare So for example it's true That in international affairs It's absolutely true That in international affairs Whoever has the biggest gun wins Might is right in international affairs For example how many people here from Georgia A few people Russia decided they want part of your country What happened they took it And there's no standard There's no objective standard to say And in a way to enforce To say no Russia you have to go back You guys can fight them but you'll lose And if Russia wants all of Georgia They'll take it So you absolutely have international anarchy It's an ethical question If I have forced Let me finish I can shoot you now But I don't have this right So I'm asking an ethical question It's an ethical question No you're not asking First of all you said International affairs are anarchy And I'm saying yes it's anarchy To the extent that might is right And a bad actor like Russia Takes a Crimea It takes whatever it wants And to the extent that Russia Doesn't do more than that It's not because of moral reasons Because Putin doesn't give an iota about morality It's about the fact that He doesn't want to piss off the Americans Because the Americans have bigger guns And they'll shoot him bigger So it's exactly that anarchy Where people are going to shoot each other Until somebody has the biggest guns And dictates the order And the person with the biggest guns I'll get to the moral question in a minute The person with the biggest guns Often is not the nicest person in the world You know, right now America is better than most But it's not necessarily a good guy So anarchy is In international context And in individual context Basically legitimization of the idea That might is right morally Now what happens if you want to secede from my country Let's say I have a lesbic country A government that only protects individual rights And you want to secede You want to establish your own little military Your own thing So to the extent that I Who run the government Believe that you constitute a threat Against other people in our society Then I'm going to take your weapons away from you If I don't believe that you constitute a threat Then go play your games Pretend that you have your little military I don't care But if you violate the laws You will fill the full wrath of the government So you can't secede Secession is a nice mind game that you play That is divorced from reality The fact is that once you choose to live in society You are part by law of the laws of that society You can violate those laws But you would then suffer the consequences Of violating those laws Particularly in a free society Where the laws are rational Where the laws are meant to protect individual rights You will certainly suffer the wrath of that society So if you want to play that mind game I think it's useful and fruitless And not about morality It's about fantasy Detached from reality But the fact is that the world is You know that when we live in a social context We need a monopoly over the use of force That is our requirement Because otherwise we have anarchy In the bad sense In the sense of everybody shooting one another in the streets Just like Russia shooting around in Georgia I don't want that Don't want to live in a world like that I don't think anybody rational does Oh, somebody I think that the most dangerous Incarnation of statism nowadays Especially for us is European Union And I would like my country to leave it Because I think that it is quite impossible To fight statists that are in Brussels But I think it is quite possible to fight statists And tribalists and socialists That are in Prague Do you think it is a right approach? I think you're overly optimistic About your ability to fight statists And tribalists in Prague I think you're probably going to fail Just as much as you're going to fail With the European Union, unfortunately You know, I'm very mixed about the European Union Because on the one hand I think it is a terrific organization In idea, right? The idea of free movement of labour Capital and goods Between a large geographic space Is fantastic And I wish we had that all over the world Those should be principles of liberty globally And my fear is that once you leave that You will stop having those three things That immediately walls will come up Restrictions will abound And your liberty will be constrained And now you'll have to fight it on the local level Even for that, which you now have Now, you know, I drive all over Europe I fly in and out of Europe all the time Never show a passport Never have to explain myself to some government official About why I'm here I mean, that's an amazing thing It's beautiful You start breaking that down Suddenly a passport checks You have tribal little bureaucrats at the border Asking you questions about why you're there Or why you're not Like if I go to Canada Or if I go into the United States The US is the worst in the world If you try to come into the US Oh my God, the questioning that you get, right? So that's my fear, right? Now, on the other hand, Brussels has become An authoritarian regulatory state That wants to impose its will On every aspect of what you do And that's horrible So how do you escape the bad stuff And keep the good stuff? You know, I think you're screwed either way I just don't see how you do it, right? So, you know, if Brexit has happened So Brexit is going to happen And we'll see this experiment I said from day one If the Brits do the right thing It'll be amazing It'll be really good But the probability that the Brits Will do the right thing is very low With all due respect to the Czech Republic And the rest of the countries represented here If the Brits can't do it I'm not sure you guys can But I do think you're screwed either way And I hate Brussels Everything that is done in Brussels today Is antagonistic to my belief It's the opposite of what I believe But I suspect that your local governments Are just as bad if left alone And that worries me Because in a sense You've only got one Brussels to deal with If you do away with that You'll have all these governments That you have to deal with I think that in the 90s We had the most free economy In the Europe So I think that we are able to do it again So I'm more optimistic than you But there are some people I'll just say this In the 90s, globally We had a far greater respect for free markets Than we do right now Not just here Asia was moving in the right direction The United States Had just ended the Reagan era And was kind of moving in the right direction I don't think it's because you were split up I think it's because the intellectual environment Was different and we've come a long way From the 90s I'm not saying don't leave the European Union I'm just saying I don't think it's a solution to anything I still think you're going to have to fight The same battles And it's just going to be as difficult As it is today It's not an easy way out It's not a quick solution to a problem Okay, thanks So good news, bad news The good news is we have a long question period After the break The bad news is this is the last question For this session So those guys in the line I'm sorry But please don't be discouraged We've got an entire Q&A After the break coming up You want your questions Go ahead So if you cannot change politics Without changing the philosophy Why did Einhorn participated In a political campaign in her youth? Because she was young Einhorn was not born Born with all the knowledge in the world Just like that She had to experience it And if you'd asked Einhorn About her experiences in political campaigns And political advocacy They were very negative She felt betrayed She felt like She always thought of a candidate That they were much better Than they really turned out to be That she was always disappointed in politics That politics led I mean, as late as 1964 Einhorn was supporting Walter actively writing And supporting him And she was disappointed in him And certainly disappointed in the outcome Because he lost in a landslide He lost by a big margin Now look I'm not saying And I don't think Einhorn would say Don't participate in politics That is not my message Because to the extent that you can win Little victories And buy us more time Before the authoritarians Completely take over Do it, right? So if you can have an impact On politics a little bit Then that's good But you're not going to bring about freedom As I think most of us understand the term Through politics That is going to have to wait Until much more significant cultural change You might move the need a little bit In that direction Which is good I'm all for moving the need A little bit in that direction Because it buys us all time to educate But the political world Won't change before the cultural world In a radical way In a big way And right now all we need is radical change Not just a little bit Although again a little bit buys us time So go for it If any of you are involved in politics Nothing I said should discourage you I just want to set your expectations right And I want to make sure that most of you Engage in what I think is crucial Which is the cultural philosophical battle Because I think that's what makes the difference long run Thank you