July 4, 2025 • 32 mins
Welcome to our 100th Episode! Today Martin and I echo what is happening at the Objectivist conference in Boston.
We discuss Enlightenment values and ideals and the ideas discovered by Ayn Rand in her philosophy of Objectivism.
These two things, working together, will provide American's, and whoever adopts them, the groundwork for a Second Renaissance. Come along for the ride!
Happy Independence Day, America!
Call-to-Action: After you have listened to this episode, add your $0.02 (two cents) to the conversation, by joining (for free) The Secular Foxhole Town Hall. Feel free to introduce yourself to the other members, discuss the different episodes, give us constructive feedback, or check out the virtual room, Speakers' Corner, and step up on the digital soapbox. Welcome to our new place in cyberspace!
Show notes with links to articles, blog posts, products and services:
- OCON in Boston, July 1 - 5
- Boston Tea Party Ship
- Objectivist conference in 1998, by Second Renaissance Conferences
- John Locke
- Adam Smith
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Kant’s Theoretical Philosophy: A Critique of Pure Reason
- Thomas Paine
- Benjamin Franklin
- Voltaire
- Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
- Isaac Newton
- Ayn Rand's Philosophic Achievement: and other Essays by Harry Binswanger
- The Freedom Trail in Boston
- Adams political family
- John Adams on Samuel Adams (& not the beer)
- Samuel Adams - Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- House passes Trump's "big, beautiful bill" after stamping out GOP rebellion - Axios
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Martin (00:00):
Foreign.
Blair (00:08):
Ladies and gentlemen, today is a very special day for Martin and I. It is our 100th
episode of the Secular Foxhole podcast.
So congratulations, Martin.
Martin (00:21):
Yes, congratulations, Blair.
Yay.
Blair (00:24):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Martin (00:26):
Soon to be published.
And that's a milestone.
Blair (00:31):
That is a milestone.
I know.
Hopefully you'll get it out tomorrow.
But my fourth, that'd be wonderful.
I know you're busy.
Martin (00:38):
Yeah, I will do that.
So we could celebrate for Independence Day and
we'll talk a little bit about that today.
And we have had guests that have been very
knowledgeable in this area,
and we try to come up with different for thishundred episodes and Independence Day.
So. And we will continue with this.
(00:59):
And I also will then talk about the future
scheduling and publishing and also call somecall to action and some statistics and also
doing some talk list, so to speak.
And we could talk about it, but I see thatevery episode have been important and
interesting to listen to and especially withguests.
(01:22):
And I think.
And you and I have had some new sandwich and
topics and.
Yeah. And we hope you listener out there haveenjoyed it.
So.
So kick it off.
Blair, about your thoughts about this day.
Right.
Blair (01:40):
This again, I wanted to do this episode.
I want to echo the Objectivist conferencethat's being held right now in Boston,
Massachusetts,
where they are integrating Enlightenment ideasand Objectivism.
(02:01):
And hopefully if those two ideas,
as far as the Enlightenment ideas, if they arereintroduced wider in the culture and if
Objectivism also dovetails, that.
That it'd be wonderful being our lifetime.
But eventually it would lead to a second
(02:22):
Renaissance,
certainly in the United States.
But I wanted to go, okay,
yeah, you will continue.
Martin (02:29):
But I will say that the Independence Day is very important day.
And I think now it's interesting when it's inBoston, as I've said it in previous episodes,
that the Boston Tea Party, the.
That should be also a holiday Remembrance Day,
because that was the kickoff, you could saythat ignited this.
(02:52):
That will come along some years later.
Blair (02:57):
You know, I really like that idea, Martin.
I think that I'm not sure how to start agroundswell movement to get the idea across
to.
Martin (03:10):
Yeah, that could be a challenge.
But.
Yes,
but the Boston team,
the ship there, for example, now it's themuseum.
It's now up and running again.
I remember I visited that in 98 at the
conference there.
And I think it was.
Yeah. And.
(03:30):
But then over sometimes, over some years, itwas in.
How to say.
In.
It was closed for.
I think it was for planning, probably.
Blair (03:43):
Remodeling or whatever, restoration, things like that.
Yes, certainly.
Yeah.
Yeah, well,
yeah, that's, I, I, I wholeheartedly endorsethat idea to make that a national holiday.
So. But again, I wanted to, I, again, I'm,
I'm not an expert on the Enlightenment, but Iwanted to kick off the show with a tribute to
(04:09):
that era and talk about four or five keyfigures from that era that have contributed
mightily to the United States and to Westernculture in general.
But let's, I want us, of course, John Locke, Ithink, is the central figure.
(04:32):
He advocated for natural rights,
the rights of life,
liberty and property,
and he laid the groundwork for liberaldemocracy,
which we have today in most countries.
And I want to talk about another figure ofnote would be Adam Smith,
(04:55):
the father of modern economics.
He certainly championed free markets in thewealth of nations, although, again,
I think his drawback was that he tied it toaltruism.
And we have,
although I am not a fan of this gentleman,
Jean Jacques Rousseau,
(05:17):
he promoted the idea of the social contract,
which I think is part of our constitutionalheritage.
And then there's,
and again, I do not include,
although he is included in the Enlightenmentera,
I don't include him.
(05:37):
And Mishran does not include him.
Immanuel Kant,
he is considered an Enlightenment philosopher,but I think it's widely seen by Aristotelians
like us that he aborted the Enlightenment withhis Critique of Pure Reason.
(05:57):
And we have to also pay tribute to ThomasPaine.
He called for a revolution and he called forindividual rights in his books Common Sense
and the Rights of Man.
Martin (06:12):
Do you know if that statue is now erected and foundation.
We have talked with Thomas Paine institutesand defenders of Thomas Paine and in different
ways.
Blair (06:24):
Right. No, I, you know, I didn't have time to look that up and I should have.
Martin (06:28):
That's okay.
Blair (06:29):
So that's something we'll do in the future when we have either the Free Thought
people or the Thomas Paine Institute peopleback on with us.
Martin (06:37):
Y.
Blair (06:37):
We will, we will see if that statue is prominent to wherever that was going to be
unveiled.
But I also.
Go ahead.
Martin (06:48):
Yeah. What now, I interrupt your thought, but I saw in the program on Okon, one
figure there was Franklin.
Blair (06:59):
Ben Franklin.
Martin (07:00):
Yeah. I think talking about.
Also.
So.
Blair (07:06):
Well, certainly he and Thomas Jefferson and obviously most of the others brought the
Enlightenment ideals to the AmericanRevolution.
I'm, I'm starting to read more about Mr.
Franklin.
I think he's very fascinating and oftenoverlooked.
(07:28):
And I think that is that I, the little I'veread so far has kept my interest and I, I will
Continue to,
continue to find interesting books about him.
I think he also wrote an autobiography, so
that has to be, that has to be on my list.
But other, again, there's some other greatfigures from the Enlightenment.
(07:53):
Voltaire comes to mind.
He is a fierce critic of religious dogma and
he was staunch advocate of freedom of speech.
And although I didn't know this, Montesquieuintroduced the idea of the separation of
powers in government, which has served us wellat least until the last few decades here in
(08:19):
the United States.
But and also Enlightenment thinker IsaacNewton, although he was a scientist, I think
his ideas shaped, they were fundamental, theyshaped civilization.
You know, they shape the modernity, if that'sthe right word.
(08:39):
Let's go over some of their majorachievements.
I mean, obviously I want to talk about JohnLocke in 1689, his Two Treatises of
Government,
where he discussed natural rights, again,life, liberty, property.
And obviously that inspired the Declaration ofIndependence.
(09:04):
And then Montesquieu in 1748, the spirit ofthe laws again shaped the US Constitution with
our separation of powers.
What else?Voltaire, Candide, I read that many, many
decades ago and it was a satire but,
(09:25):
and good, it was good stuff.
But again, a social.
Jacques Rousseau with his Social Contract,
he was certainly an Enlightenment figure, butI,
I,
I'm not again, I'm not a fan of his.
And of course, Adam Smith, the Wealth ofnations was still, it's still read widely read
(09:47):
everywhere.
Then we have the Rights of Man and ThomasPaine's Rights of Man and his common Sense.
Those are bedrocks or they should still bebedrock if, if they've been probably in our
Marxist universities have been long forgotten.
(10:07):
But again, so what needs to happen to finishthe Enlightenment in the American Revolution?
I mean, we,
to rekindle the Enlightenment and to finishwhat they started with the American,
those men started with the AmericanRevolution.
And that we come to Ayn Rand and her obviouslyher philosophic achievements,
(10:36):
her incredible novels,
her philosophic achievement of some of thehighlights that she brought to the forefront.
I want to talk about,
I'm going to borrow this from Dr. HarryBenzwanger's book,
(10:59):
Ayn Rand's Philosophic Achievement.
He lists six things that she six landmarkachievements that she introduced to the world.
The primacy of existence.
In other words,
(11:19):
existence is the base of knowledge and the actof grasping that implies that we exist and
that we know we exist because of our consciousminds.
I think that's a very poor way of describingand maybe you can do better,
(11:42):
Martin, but the next Thing he enlists is hertheory of concepts, which concept formation,
abstractions,
epistemology, I believe is the best way tocover that subject.
How we know what we know.
(12:02):
And her theory of free will, which I think isrevolutionary,
which is,
if you will, the freedom to think or not tothink or the ability to think or not to think.
And I think that once that kicks in inculture, that'll be amazing.
(12:25):
And another achievement that she gave us wasinclude man's life,
your own life, as the standard of morality.
You have to understand this revolutionaryconcept that you don't serve others as your
(12:46):
primary goal in life.
You exist to pursue your own happiness.
Martin (12:53):
Yeah.
Put that in as a key thing in when we did thisdeclaration,
the pursuit of happiness.
It's no guarantee, but.
And then of course about property, forexample.
Blair (13:09):
Yes, well, unfortunately they left that part out, but that was it.
So there was again these things.
I know that.
Again my experience with introducing hernovels to as many people as I have.
(13:33):
Again, of the 40 plus people over the yearsthat I've introduced her stuff to, only one or
two have rejected it.
So again, I hope that her ideas continue togrow.
I think that what the institute is doing isincredible and I hope they get to continue on
(14:00):
that path.
But in summary, I guess that's my,
that's my echoing of the.
The actual conference that's going on in
Boston right now.
Yeah. And there.
And there we have it.
Martin (14:13):
That's good.
I got from one of listeners,
Roland Horvath, he said Bradley Thompson'slecture in the revolutionary Revolutionary
Constitutionalism was definitely highlight.
(14:35):
And now Brandon Leesy's lecturing on thegrandfather of Atlas Shrugged plot idea Ms.
Rand had when she was 18 was a precursor of.
Adler shrugged.
So he's there in Boston at a conference.
Roland Horvart,
one of our listener loyal listeners and trueAppreciate that.
(15:01):
And we'll hear more of that later on.
And as I said right now is many institutes,
think tanks and others that are trying tospread the good word.
So that's good.
And I was thinking about the place in Bostonand you walk this.
Is it called the Freedom Trail in Boston?
Blair (15:23):
Yes, yes it is.
Martin (15:24):
And a bit to be joking, but also be serious at the same time because I like
microbrewery now.
It's a big brewery, but you know, Samuel
Adams.
Blair (15:34):
Yeah.
Martin (15:35):
And John.
It had this connection there with John Adams.
It's interesting to see how it that FreedomTrail and with people who traded and joined
this fight to become independent from the.
(15:55):
Especially from the King in a way that also
could Be,
you know, a warning sign to think so.
Not the president is starting acting like aking also.
That's something to think about.
Blair (16:12):
Yeah.
Martin (16:12):
That was one of the important thing, I think that was that they didn't.
They were so afraid about it.
So they didn't for a long time.
And still is that you're not,
you don't have the right to become a presidentif you're born in a foreign country.
Is that true still?
Blair (16:29):
That's still true, yes.
Martin (16:30):
And in a way, if you are American in spirit like me, you should be able to become a
president of American spirit, United States ofAmerica.
I think I don't,
you know, strive for that,
but I know why they had it because they wereafraid that it was some infiltration or some,
you know, British spies or whatever you wantto call it or that tried to do a coup or take
(16:56):
power.
Yeah. So. So I understand the historyhistorical thing and that would be interesting
to know if it was any fear or real danger ofthat could happen.
But also now not take it for granted.
Now Americans celebrate.
What do they celebrate and what we see herenow with the presidential powers and how they
(17:19):
want to change and whatnot.
So you don't act as this kingpin and startingto do things that way or not we the people
anymore.
It's something else.
And that's important to spotlight and pointout,
I think.
Blair (17:37):
Oh, it's most certainly.
Yes, it's most certainly important.
I think that the hidden aspects of the bigbeautiful bill that was just squeaked by
apparently last night have gutted people'sprotection against government encroachment.
Again,
he is Trump is.
(18:00):
I fully expect these ICE raids to not onlycontinue, but grow in intensity,
sadly.
And as I said in our last podcast, today it'sthe Venezuelans, tomorrow it'll be atheists.
Martin (18:20):
Yeah.
Unless this is stopped,
we'll see what will happen.
Luckily, and I don't know when was that fromthe beginning that the president could only
sit for two periods or in total eight years.
Blair (18:37):
Yes, it was.
But FDR was the only one that.
Martin (18:46):
I'm jumping to a totally different topic here.
Maybe we could invite the expert on that.
I was thinking now on a trial and a case, a
euro.
And how important is that you should have
people in the uri that is so called or shouldsay they don't have any.
That they are how to say pressured or in someway.
(19:12):
So I would like to talk about that and getmore insight and information because it's a
case right now.
You wonder what's going on it was like this
how to say artist music artists that have beenon a trial here and it's very hard for them to
get you remember because everyone knows aboutthis person so it's hard for them to set up.
Blair (19:38):
I'm not sure what you're.
Martin (19:40):
What is this PDD or what is called.
Blair (19:43):
Oh, okay. Sean Diddy Combs.
Martin (19:45):
Yeah.
Blair (19:46):
Yeah.
Martin (19:47):
So. So I would like to.
I mean because it.
The good thing with America is this balancingsystem of powers but also what have happened
in.
In with different legislation in even recently
and so on.
So. And also what's going on in the belt waveand the pressure groups and whatnot.
Blair (20:08):
Yeah.
Martin (20:09):
So.
But still we should celebrate on, on on thisday and I wanted if you.
If that's okay we'll do soon a wrap up but weare toggling away here and going have around
seven listeners or downloads every day.
(20:29):
In total it's like 11,000 or something likethat that have listen in downloads and like
6,000 unique listeners.
Blair (20:40):
That's great.
Martin (20:41):
And my call to action is to go to TrueFans FM and register for free.
And then you could support us in differentways.
You could become a fan of a podcast.
You could donate monthly amount.
You could stream satoshis, you could sendbooster grams or super comments,
(21:05):
et cetera.
And now we have an iOS Apple app in the Apple
App Store.
So go and download TrueFans FM if you have an
iPhone and the Android will soon come also.
So I think that is a great,
great news here.
So I will do a listing of so called top list,maybe 10 or whatever in downloads and we could
(21:33):
have some personal favorites and so on and dolike a playlist of that the listeners out
there because now 100 episodes.
Do you have a favorite?Do you have several favorites?
What are we missing?
Who should we have as a guest in the future?Any topic you want to discuss or listen to and
(21:57):
whatnot.
So yeah.
And again, how could you celebrate
Independence Day in different ways?
Blair (22:05):
Yes.
Well, I know for myself I'll probably readsome of the Declaration and I'll probably read
take the Ayn Rand lexicon and go through thatnot only on about America but about other
(22:25):
things that'll pop up like you know,
individual rights and so on and so forth.
But I had something in my mind that I wantedto mention real quick.
Oh.
As far as going forward,
I want to introduce our new logo and I'vebeen, I've been trying to figure out how to
(22:46):
put that on on the blog.
Martin (22:49):
Yeah.
Blair (22:49):
So I'll. When once I figure that out.
I'll put that out there.
And I think we should use that new logo.
Martin (22:55):
Okay.
Blair (22:56):
From now on.
Although obviously we can interchange.
Martin (23:00):
Yeah.
Blair (23:01):
Because I do like, I mean I sort of designed first one and then you had the artist
make it better.
Martin (23:08):
Yeah.
Blair (23:09):
And this.
But this I will,
I will confess that our new logo is AIgenerated but I really like it.
And so that's something that we'll beintegrating into our shows from now on.
Martin (23:26):
And I have some ideas also and I think we could talk openly with that regarding new
jingle and so on.
I know Jim Johnson with created has been
looking into new endeavors and so on.
Oh cool.
I have an idea about the logo with some of theactivists that we know that are skillful in
(23:48):
this area and we'll see what we could do.
But I like your attempt there and I like the
symbolism there with the fox.
Blair (24:01):
With a microphone.
Martin (24:02):
Yeah. So we'll talk about that.
And with this new Podcasting 2.0 initiative,
you could have different chapters as it'scalled like section in a podcast.
Like we have a new segment, you have a guest,you, you could have some call to action and
then you could in every segment that you thinkcould be separated like a book, a chapter, you
(24:26):
could have an illustration.
So that's something, something we could try toincorporate.
I, I want to find the podcasting flow for thatwhen, when you work with editing and post
production and how could you add chapters?
But I think that could be for example, whenyou have an author you could have book covers
(24:48):
and a link directly to the book and, andwhatnot.
Blair (24:52):
Right, right.
Martin (24:53):
So. So I want to look into more of that in, in the future.
So and also that we could say that for therecord, I mean we have.
I've said that we now with 100 episodes wehave roughly had and published a new episode
every two weeks like on bimonthly orfortnightly scheduled.
(25:18):
But sometimes have been a bit far.
Blair (25:20):
Oh yes.
Martin (25:21):
Lately it's because sometimes it has been several episodes per month.
So I would say and that we could so calledpromise to do it at least once a month now
when we have done reach this milestone.
But we will hope to do it more often becausesometimes we get this so called catch up
(25:43):
effect with lots of guests in the pipeline andthat what I want to also introduce an
onboarding guest, future guest and old gueston these true fans and value for value model
because then the guest could get us added tothe split.
Well that's great.
Blair (26:02):
That's right.
Martin (26:02):
So we will continue with that.
Anything else you Want to say no, no.
Blair (26:14):
I will email you the show title and yeah, a couple of notes I want, I also want to
point out to you Martin, and to our listeners.
The Institute is publishing pamphlets latelyback.
Martin (26:33):
In the old day I had pamphlets.
Blair (26:36):
This is their latest one.
Martin (26:38):
Okay.
Blair (26:38):
Why can't professional philosophers get Rand right by Mike Masda?
Martin (26:43):
Well, that's a good one.
Blair (26:45):
And it's 40 something pages.
30 something pages.
Let's see.
Here we go.
No, sorry, it's only.
But nonetheless it's 20 something pages of
very brilliant.
And then there's.
Martin (27:00):
Could you get that? Is it buying from their bookstore or.
Blair (27:04):
No, this was, this was Amazon.
They don't have Kindle versions, they have
these little pamphlet pamphleteers.
Martin (27:13):
I will look into how much it will cost to send to,
to Sweden because if it's like fin book thenit's not so expensive.
So that's good.
But I remember the pamphlets that they had,for example, different topics.
For example,
the reprint of Playboy into you with Rand.
Blair (27:31):
Right? Yes. Yeah.
Martin (27:34):
This kind of thing I still think is valuable and should be enhanced of individuals
especially at campus and at universities andschools and also to have that as this one.
Did you get it right?
Because I'm for Internet and for everythingthat you could find on the net.
(27:54):
But it's good to have something in your handalso.
And we could maybe to joke, we could maybelearn from the religious people there,
you know, they have their holy scriptures andthey give something, you know, to you.
Blair (28:06):
Oh certainly read here.
Martin (28:08):
And we want some donation.
Right.
You know, that was a Hare Krishna thing.
They gave something free and then they waitedand you could joke about.
They have,
I mean they have often their pamphlets, Idon't know see how much it's in your area.
But here in Sweden, in Gothenburg, you seepeople from what is called both were Mormons
(28:35):
that they are standing with their, you know,it's the last day.
Wait.
Blair (28:41):
But they have no, of course I, I used to work down in, when I lived in other parts
of the country, I, I, I, I worked downtown andI would go out to lunch and there would be,
you know, people doing that kind of thing andso on and so forth but I haven't worked in a,
in the city for so long.
I don't know if that's still going.
Martin (29:01):
On or not if that's happening.
Blair (29:03):
I mean I,
it's funny because again back in that time erawhen I worked downtown there'd be a news crew,
they did the man in the street interview and Igot interviewed a couple of times over the
years about certain things.
And that was great.
That was fun.
But yeah, I haven't seen that kind of thing ina long time.
(29:26):
But otherwise, let me think really.
Thank you again, Martin, for all you've done
for.
For me and for this podcast and.
Martin (29:34):
So you save the same to you there.
Thank you.
Blair (29:38):
I hope to.
I've.
I've reached out to a couple of people, butthey're both at the conference, so that's
probably why they haven't responded.
Martin (29:45):
Yeah.
Blair (29:46):
That's okay as far as speakers, but after the conference is overall I. I'll try to
reach out to them again, but that's all I'vegot.
So thank you.
Martin (30:00):
Thank you very much, Blair.
And have a happy independent day.
Thank you.
And celebrate and have fun and enjoy.
Blair (30:08):
We'll do so re.
Martin (30:10):
Read the material that you wanted and I will do that in my way also.
I mean we have had that here in Got my.
With friends like celebration with
Independence Day in different ways.
And as I said again, we have had thistradition of celebrating Boston Tea Party for
a long time also.
Blair (30:28):
Great.
Great.
Martin (30:29):
It's all good.
So.
Blair (30:32):
So Happy Independence Day, America, the most moral nation in human history.
Martin (30:37):
Yeah.
Blair (30:37):
Not. Not because of our Judeo Christian heritage, but in spite of it.
Martin (30:43):
Yeah. And. And we will come to.
Back to that topic also.
And as the last thing.
Robot, you know, Robert B. Robert B.
Blair (30:53):
Okay.
Martin (30:54):
Yeah. And they will celebrate by reading.
Blair (30:58):
Yes, that's right.
Martin (30:59):
Declaration.
So that's a nice initiative.
And they have done that for a long time.
And you told me about the conference.
You have that with Connecticut, right?
Blair (31:09):
Yes. Yeah. They did it.
We did it for.
I know that well.
Well, I know.
I certainly know that some time ago now.
But we did it every year.
Yeah. Whether it be on Zoom or live togetherstand, you know, being together in outside
somewhere.
But anyhow, that was.
That was before people had to leave or move or
(31:31):
this or that or you know, the next thing.
So anyhow.
But yes.
So that's again, happy birthday.
Happy Independence Day, America.
Martin (31:42):
Yeah.
Blair (31:42):
And that's all I got.
Martin (31:45):
Yep. Have a good one, Blair, and talk to you soon again.
Blair (31:49):
All right.
Thanks, Martin.
Martin (32:07):
Sam.
Foreign.
Blair (00:08):
Ladies and gentlemen, today is a very special day for Martin and I. It is our 100th
episode of the Secular Foxhole podcast.
So congratulations, Martin.
Martin (00:21):
Yes, congratulations, Blair.
Yay.
Blair (00:24):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Martin (00:26):
Soon to be published.
And that's a milestone.
Blair (00:31):
That is a milestone.
I know.
Hopefully you'll get it out tomorrow.
But my fourth, that'd be wonderful.
I know you're busy.
Martin (00:38):
Yeah, I will do that.
So we could celebrate for Independence Day and
we'll talk a little bit about that today.
And we have had guests that have been very
knowledgeable in this area,
and we try to come up with different for thishundred episodes and Independence Day.
So. And we will continue with this.
(00:59):
And I also will then talk about the future
scheduling and publishing and also call somecall to action and some statistics and also
doing some talk list, so to speak.
And we could talk about it, but I see thatevery episode have been important and
interesting to listen to and especially withguests.
(01:22):
And I think.
And you and I have had some new sandwich and
topics and.
Yeah. And we hope you listener out there haveenjoyed it.
So.
So kick it off.
Blair, about your thoughts about this day.
Right.
Blair (01:40):
This again, I wanted to do this episode.
I want to echo the Objectivist conferencethat's being held right now in Boston,
Massachusetts,
where they are integrating Enlightenment ideasand Objectivism.
(02:01):
And hopefully if those two ideas,
as far as the Enlightenment ideas, if they arereintroduced wider in the culture and if
Objectivism also dovetails, that.
That it'd be wonderful being our lifetime.
But eventually it would lead to a second
(02:22):
Renaissance,
certainly in the United States.
But I wanted to go, okay,
yeah, you will continue.
Martin (02:29):
But I will say that the Independence Day is very important day.
And I think now it's interesting when it's inBoston, as I've said it in previous episodes,
that the Boston Tea Party, the.
That should be also a holiday Remembrance Day,
because that was the kickoff, you could saythat ignited this.
(02:52):
That will come along some years later.
Blair (02:57):
You know, I really like that idea, Martin.
I think that I'm not sure how to start agroundswell movement to get the idea across
to.
Martin (03:10):
Yeah, that could be a challenge.
But.
Yes,
but the Boston team,
the ship there, for example, now it's themuseum.
It's now up and running again.
I remember I visited that in 98 at the
conference there.
And I think it was.
Yeah. And.
(03:30):
But then over sometimes, over some years, itwas in.
How to say.
In.
It was closed for.
I think it was for planning, probably.
Blair (03:43):
Remodeling or whatever, restoration, things like that.
Yes, certainly.
Yeah.
Yeah, well,
yeah, that's, I, I, I wholeheartedly endorsethat idea to make that a national holiday.
So. But again, I wanted to, I, again, I'm,
I'm not an expert on the Enlightenment, but Iwanted to kick off the show with a tribute to
(04:09):
that era and talk about four or five keyfigures from that era that have contributed
mightily to the United States and to Westernculture in general.
But let's, I want us, of course, John Locke, Ithink, is the central figure.
(04:32):
He advocated for natural rights,
the rights of life,
liberty and property,
and he laid the groundwork for liberaldemocracy,
which we have today in most countries.
And I want to talk about another figure ofnote would be Adam Smith,
(04:55):
the father of modern economics.
He certainly championed free markets in thewealth of nations, although, again,
I think his drawback was that he tied it toaltruism.
And we have,
although I am not a fan of this gentleman,
Jean Jacques Rousseau,
(05:17):
he promoted the idea of the social contract,
which I think is part of our constitutionalheritage.
And then there's,
and again, I do not include,
although he is included in the Enlightenmentera,
I don't include him.
(05:37):
And Mishran does not include him.
Immanuel Kant,
he is considered an Enlightenment philosopher,but I think it's widely seen by Aristotelians
like us that he aborted the Enlightenment withhis Critique of Pure Reason.
(05:57):
And we have to also pay tribute to ThomasPaine.
He called for a revolution and he called forindividual rights in his books Common Sense
and the Rights of Man.
Martin (06:12):
Do you know if that statue is now erected and foundation.
We have talked with Thomas Paine institutesand defenders of Thomas Paine and in different
ways.
Blair (06:24):
Right. No, I, you know, I didn't have time to look that up and I should have.
Martin (06:28):
That's okay.
Blair (06:29):
So that's something we'll do in the future when we have either the Free Thought
people or the Thomas Paine Institute peopleback on with us.
Martin (06:37):
Y.
Blair (06:37):
We will, we will see if that statue is prominent to wherever that was going to be
unveiled.
But I also.
Go ahead.
Martin (06:48):
Yeah. What now, I interrupt your thought, but I saw in the program on Okon, one
figure there was Franklin.
Blair (06:59):
Ben Franklin.
Martin (07:00):
Yeah. I think talking about.
Also.
So.
Blair (07:06):
Well, certainly he and Thomas Jefferson and obviously most of the others brought the
Enlightenment ideals to the AmericanRevolution.
I'm, I'm starting to read more about Mr.
Franklin.
I think he's very fascinating and oftenoverlooked.
(07:28):
And I think that is that I, the little I'veread so far has kept my interest and I, I will
Continue to,
continue to find interesting books about him.
I think he also wrote an autobiography, so
that has to be, that has to be on my list.
But other, again, there's some other greatfigures from the Enlightenment.
(07:53):
Voltaire comes to mind.
He is a fierce critic of religious dogma and
he was staunch advocate of freedom of speech.
And although I didn't know this, Montesquieuintroduced the idea of the separation of
powers in government, which has served us wellat least until the last few decades here in
(08:19):
the United States.
But and also Enlightenment thinker IsaacNewton, although he was a scientist, I think
his ideas shaped, they were fundamental, theyshaped civilization.
You know, they shape the modernity, if that'sthe right word.
(08:39):
Let's go over some of their majorachievements.
I mean, obviously I want to talk about JohnLocke in 1689, his Two Treatises of
Government,
where he discussed natural rights, again,life, liberty, property.
And obviously that inspired the Declaration ofIndependence.
(09:04):
And then Montesquieu in 1748, the spirit ofthe laws again shaped the US Constitution with
our separation of powers.
What else?Voltaire, Candide, I read that many, many
decades ago and it was a satire but,
(09:25):
and good, it was good stuff.
But again, a social.
Jacques Rousseau with his Social Contract,
he was certainly an Enlightenment figure, butI,
I,
I'm not again, I'm not a fan of his.
And of course, Adam Smith, the Wealth ofnations was still, it's still read widely read
(09:47):
everywhere.
Then we have the Rights of Man and ThomasPaine's Rights of Man and his common Sense.
Those are bedrocks or they should still bebedrock if, if they've been probably in our
Marxist universities have been long forgotten.
(10:07):
But again, so what needs to happen to finishthe Enlightenment in the American Revolution?
I mean, we,
to rekindle the Enlightenment and to finishwhat they started with the American,
those men started with the AmericanRevolution.
And that we come to Ayn Rand and her obviouslyher philosophic achievements,
(10:36):
her incredible novels,
her philosophic achievement of some of thehighlights that she brought to the forefront.
I want to talk about,
I'm going to borrow this from Dr. HarryBenzwanger's book,
(10:59):
Ayn Rand's Philosophic Achievement.
He lists six things that she six landmarkachievements that she introduced to the world.
The primacy of existence.
In other words,
(11:19):
existence is the base of knowledge and the actof grasping that implies that we exist and
that we know we exist because of our consciousminds.
I think that's a very poor way of describingand maybe you can do better,
(11:42):
Martin, but the next Thing he enlists is hertheory of concepts, which concept formation,
abstractions,
epistemology, I believe is the best way tocover that subject.
How we know what we know.
(12:02):
And her theory of free will, which I think isrevolutionary,
which is,
if you will, the freedom to think or not tothink or the ability to think or not to think.
And I think that once that kicks in inculture, that'll be amazing.
(12:25):
And another achievement that she gave us wasinclude man's life,
your own life, as the standard of morality.
You have to understand this revolutionaryconcept that you don't serve others as your
(12:46):
primary goal in life.
You exist to pursue your own happiness.
Martin (12:53):
Yeah.
Put that in as a key thing in when we did thisdeclaration,
the pursuit of happiness.
It's no guarantee, but.
And then of course about property, forexample.
Blair (13:09):
Yes, well, unfortunately they left that part out, but that was it.
So there was again these things.
I know that.
Again my experience with introducing hernovels to as many people as I have.
(13:33):
Again, of the 40 plus people over the yearsthat I've introduced her stuff to, only one or
two have rejected it.
So again, I hope that her ideas continue togrow.
I think that what the institute is doing isincredible and I hope they get to continue on
(14:00):
that path.
But in summary, I guess that's my,
that's my echoing of the.
The actual conference that's going on in
Boston right now.
Yeah. And there.
And there we have it.
Martin (14:13):
That's good.
I got from one of listeners,
Roland Horvath, he said Bradley Thompson'slecture in the revolutionary Revolutionary
Constitutionalism was definitely highlight.
(14:35):
And now Brandon Leesy's lecturing on thegrandfather of Atlas Shrugged plot idea Ms.
Rand had when she was 18 was a precursor of.
Adler shrugged.
So he's there in Boston at a conference.
Roland Horvart,
one of our listener loyal listeners and trueAppreciate that.
(15:01):
And we'll hear more of that later on.
And as I said right now is many institutes,
think tanks and others that are trying tospread the good word.
So that's good.
And I was thinking about the place in Bostonand you walk this.
Is it called the Freedom Trail in Boston?
Blair (15:23):
Yes, yes it is.
Martin (15:24):
And a bit to be joking, but also be serious at the same time because I like
microbrewery now.
It's a big brewery, but you know, Samuel
Adams.
Blair (15:34):
Yeah.
Martin (15:35):
And John.
It had this connection there with John Adams.
It's interesting to see how it that FreedomTrail and with people who traded and joined
this fight to become independent from the.
(15:55):
Especially from the King in a way that also
could Be,
you know, a warning sign to think so.
Not the president is starting acting like aking also.
That's something to think about.
Blair (16:12):
Yeah.
Martin (16:12):
That was one of the important thing, I think that was that they didn't.
They were so afraid about it.
So they didn't for a long time.
And still is that you're not,
you don't have the right to become a presidentif you're born in a foreign country.
Is that true still?
Blair (16:29):
That's still true, yes.
Martin (16:30):
And in a way, if you are American in spirit like me, you should be able to become a
president of American spirit, United States ofAmerica.
I think I don't,
you know, strive for that,
but I know why they had it because they wereafraid that it was some infiltration or some,
you know, British spies or whatever you wantto call it or that tried to do a coup or take
(16:56):
power.
Yeah. So. So I understand the historyhistorical thing and that would be interesting
to know if it was any fear or real danger ofthat could happen.
But also now not take it for granted.
Now Americans celebrate.
What do they celebrate and what we see herenow with the presidential powers and how they
(17:19):
want to change and whatnot.
So you don't act as this kingpin and startingto do things that way or not we the people
anymore.
It's something else.
And that's important to spotlight and pointout,
I think.
Blair (17:37):
Oh, it's most certainly.
Yes, it's most certainly important.
I think that the hidden aspects of the bigbeautiful bill that was just squeaked by
apparently last night have gutted people'sprotection against government encroachment.
Again,
he is Trump is.
(18:00):
I fully expect these ICE raids to not onlycontinue, but grow in intensity,
sadly.
And as I said in our last podcast, today it'sthe Venezuelans, tomorrow it'll be atheists.
Martin (18:20):
Yeah.
Unless this is stopped,
we'll see what will happen.
Luckily, and I don't know when was that fromthe beginning that the president could only
sit for two periods or in total eight years.
Blair (18:37):
Yes, it was.
But FDR was the only one that.
Martin (18:46):
I'm jumping to a totally different topic here.
Maybe we could invite the expert on that.
I was thinking now on a trial and a case, a
euro.
And how important is that you should have
people in the uri that is so called or shouldsay they don't have any.
That they are how to say pressured or in someway.
(19:12):
So I would like to talk about that and getmore insight and information because it's a
case right now.
You wonder what's going on it was like this
how to say artist music artists that have beenon a trial here and it's very hard for them to
get you remember because everyone knows aboutthis person so it's hard for them to set up.
Blair (19:38):
I'm not sure what you're.
Martin (19:40):
What is this PDD or what is called.
Blair (19:43):
Oh, okay. Sean Diddy Combs.
Martin (19:45):
Yeah.
Blair (19:46):
Yeah.
Martin (19:47):
So. So I would like to.
I mean because it.
The good thing with America is this balancingsystem of powers but also what have happened
in.
In with different legislation in even recently
and so on.
So. And also what's going on in the belt waveand the pressure groups and whatnot.
Blair (20:08):
Yeah.
Martin (20:09):
So.
But still we should celebrate on, on on thisday and I wanted if you.
If that's okay we'll do soon a wrap up but weare toggling away here and going have around
seven listeners or downloads every day.
(20:29):
In total it's like 11,000 or something likethat that have listen in downloads and like
6,000 unique listeners.
Blair (20:40):
That's great.
Martin (20:41):
And my call to action is to go to TrueFans FM and register for free.
And then you could support us in differentways.
You could become a fan of a podcast.
You could donate monthly amount.
You could stream satoshis, you could sendbooster grams or super comments,
(21:05):
et cetera.
And now we have an iOS Apple app in the Apple
App Store.
So go and download TrueFans FM if you have an
iPhone and the Android will soon come also.
So I think that is a great,
great news here.
So I will do a listing of so called top list,maybe 10 or whatever in downloads and we could
(21:33):
have some personal favorites and so on and dolike a playlist of that the listeners out
there because now 100 episodes.
Do you have a favorite?Do you have several favorites?
What are we missing?
Who should we have as a guest in the future?Any topic you want to discuss or listen to and
(21:57):
whatnot.
So yeah.
And again, how could you celebrate
Independence Day in different ways?
Blair (22:05):
Yes.
Well, I know for myself I'll probably readsome of the Declaration and I'll probably read
take the Ayn Rand lexicon and go through thatnot only on about America but about other
(22:25):
things that'll pop up like you know,
individual rights and so on and so forth.
But I had something in my mind that I wantedto mention real quick.
Oh.
As far as going forward,
I want to introduce our new logo and I'vebeen, I've been trying to figure out how to
(22:46):
put that on on the blog.
Martin (22:49):
Yeah.
Blair (22:49):
So I'll. When once I figure that out.
I'll put that out there.
And I think we should use that new logo.
Martin (22:55):
Okay.
Blair (22:56):
From now on.
Although obviously we can interchange.
Martin (23:00):
Yeah.
Blair (23:01):
Because I do like, I mean I sort of designed first one and then you had the artist
make it better.
Martin (23:08):
Yeah.
Blair (23:09):
And this.
But this I will,
I will confess that our new logo is AIgenerated but I really like it.
And so that's something that we'll beintegrating into our shows from now on.
Martin (23:26):
And I have some ideas also and I think we could talk openly with that regarding new
jingle and so on.
I know Jim Johnson with created has been
looking into new endeavors and so on.
Oh cool.
I have an idea about the logo with some of theactivists that we know that are skillful in
(23:48):
this area and we'll see what we could do.
But I like your attempt there and I like the
symbolism there with the fox.
Blair (24:01):
With a microphone.
Martin (24:02):
Yeah. So we'll talk about that.
And with this new Podcasting 2.0 initiative,
you could have different chapters as it'scalled like section in a podcast.
Like we have a new segment, you have a guest,you, you could have some call to action and
then you could in every segment that you thinkcould be separated like a book, a chapter, you
(24:26):
could have an illustration.
So that's something, something we could try toincorporate.
I, I want to find the podcasting flow for thatwhen, when you work with editing and post
production and how could you add chapters?
But I think that could be for example, whenyou have an author you could have book covers
(24:48):
and a link directly to the book and, andwhatnot.
Blair (24:52):
Right, right.
Martin (24:53):
So. So I want to look into more of that in, in the future.
So and also that we could say that for therecord, I mean we have.
I've said that we now with 100 episodes wehave roughly had and published a new episode
every two weeks like on bimonthly orfortnightly scheduled.
(25:18):
But sometimes have been a bit far.
Blair (25:20):
Oh yes.
Martin (25:21):
Lately it's because sometimes it has been several episodes per month.
So I would say and that we could so calledpromise to do it at least once a month now
when we have done reach this milestone.
But we will hope to do it more often becausesometimes we get this so called catch up
(25:43):
effect with lots of guests in the pipeline andthat what I want to also introduce an
onboarding guest, future guest and old gueston these true fans and value for value model
because then the guest could get us added tothe split.
Well that's great.
Blair (26:02):
That's right.
Martin (26:02):
So we will continue with that.
Anything else you Want to say no, no.
Blair (26:14):
I will email you the show title and yeah, a couple of notes I want, I also want to
point out to you Martin, and to our listeners.
The Institute is publishing pamphlets latelyback.
Martin (26:33):
In the old day I had pamphlets.
Blair (26:36):
This is their latest one.
Martin (26:38):
Okay.
Blair (26:38):
Why can't professional philosophers get Rand right by Mike Masda?
Martin (26:43):
Well, that's a good one.
Blair (26:45):
And it's 40 something pages.
30 something pages.
Let's see.
Here we go.
No, sorry, it's only.
But nonetheless it's 20 something pages of
very brilliant.
And then there's.
Martin (27:00):
Could you get that? Is it buying from their bookstore or.
Blair (27:04):
No, this was, this was Amazon.
They don't have Kindle versions, they have
these little pamphlet pamphleteers.
Martin (27:13):
I will look into how much it will cost to send to,
to Sweden because if it's like fin book thenit's not so expensive.
So that's good.
But I remember the pamphlets that they had,for example, different topics.
For example,
the reprint of Playboy into you with Rand.
Blair (27:31):
Right? Yes. Yeah.
Martin (27:34):
This kind of thing I still think is valuable and should be enhanced of individuals
especially at campus and at universities andschools and also to have that as this one.
Did you get it right?
Because I'm for Internet and for everythingthat you could find on the net.
(27:54):
But it's good to have something in your handalso.
And we could maybe to joke, we could maybelearn from the religious people there,
you know, they have their holy scriptures andthey give something, you know, to you.
Blair (28:06):
Oh certainly read here.
Martin (28:08):
And we want some donation.
Right.
You know, that was a Hare Krishna thing.
They gave something free and then they waitedand you could joke about.
They have,
I mean they have often their pamphlets, Idon't know see how much it's in your area.
But here in Sweden, in Gothenburg, you seepeople from what is called both were Mormons
(28:35):
that they are standing with their, you know,it's the last day.
Wait.
Blair (28:41):
But they have no, of course I, I used to work down in, when I lived in other parts
of the country, I, I, I, I worked downtown andI would go out to lunch and there would be,
you know, people doing that kind of thing andso on and so forth but I haven't worked in a,
in the city for so long.
I don't know if that's still going.
Martin (29:01):
On or not if that's happening.
Blair (29:03):
I mean I,
it's funny because again back in that time erawhen I worked downtown there'd be a news crew,
they did the man in the street interview and Igot interviewed a couple of times over the
years about certain things.
And that was great.
That was fun.
But yeah, I haven't seen that kind of thing ina long time.
(29:26):
But otherwise, let me think really.
Thank you again, Martin, for all you've done
for.
For me and for this podcast and.
Martin (29:34):
So you save the same to you there.
Thank you.
Blair (29:38):
I hope to.
I've.
I've reached out to a couple of people, butthey're both at the conference, so that's
probably why they haven't responded.
Martin (29:45):
Yeah.
Blair (29:46):
That's okay as far as speakers, but after the conference is overall I. I'll try to
reach out to them again, but that's all I'vegot.
So thank you.
Martin (30:00):
Thank you very much, Blair.
And have a happy independent day.
Thank you.
And celebrate and have fun and enjoy.
Blair (30:08):
We'll do so re.
Martin (30:10):
Read the material that you wanted and I will do that in my way also.
I mean we have had that here in Got my.
With friends like celebration with
Independence Day in different ways.
And as I said again, we have had thistradition of celebrating Boston Tea Party for
a long time also.
Blair (30:28):
Great.
Great.
Martin (30:29):
It's all good.
So.
Blair (30:32):
So Happy Independence Day, America, the most moral nation in human history.
Martin (30:37):
Yeah.
Blair (30:37):
Not. Not because of our Judeo Christian heritage, but in spite of it.
Martin (30:43):
Yeah. And. And we will come to.
Back to that topic also.
And as the last thing.
Robot, you know, Robert B. Robert B.
Blair (30:53):
Okay.
Martin (30:54):
Yeah. And they will celebrate by reading.
Blair (30:58):
Yes, that's right.
Martin (30:59):
Declaration.
So that's a nice initiative.
And they have done that for a long time.
And you told me about the conference.
You have that with Connecticut, right?
Blair (31:09):
Yes. Yeah. They did it.
We did it for.
I know that well.
Well, I know.
I certainly know that some time ago now.
But we did it every year.
Yeah. Whether it be on Zoom or live togetherstand, you know, being together in outside
somewhere.
But anyhow, that was.
That was before people had to leave or move or
(31:31):
this or that or you know, the next thing.
So anyhow.
But yes.
So that's again, happy birthday.
Happy Independence Day, America.
Martin (31:42):
Yeah.
Blair (31:42):
And that's all I got.
Martin (31:45):
Yep. Have a good one, Blair, and talk to you soon again.
Blair (31:49):
All right.
Thanks, Martin.
Martin (32:07):
Sam.
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