February 24, 2025 • 19 mins
This short episode includes a talk with Substack writer, Stewart Margolis, whose topic, "Where To Find the New Intellectuals," was discussed. We talked about various 'currents' in the culture and how to find them. I brag about a certain achievement I'm proud of, and although I've forgot to mention the rise in Homeschooling, listeners should include that in the great advancements happening without publicity, which is a good thing.
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Show notes with links to articles, blog posts, products and services:
- Stewart Margolis on Substack
- Where To Find The New Intellectuals?
- For The New Intellectual by Ayn Rand
- Robert Tracinski's Symposium
- How the Libertarian Party Became the Reactionary Arm of Trump and Trumpism - The UnPopulist
- Trump among the libertarians - Boston Globe Opinion
- Faced With Trump, Libertarianism Shrugged - The Bulwark
- Three lessons from Aristotle on friendship - The Conversation
- Ayn Rand on abortion - Goodreads
- Ayn Rand on the military draft - Ayn Rand Institute
- Fox News - Pew Research Center
- The Bulwark (website) - Wikipedia
- Agustina Vergara Cid: Ending TPS for Venezuelans whitewashes the Maduro regime - The Orange County Register
- Ayn Rand Heir Asserts Elian’s Right to Remain in U.S. (April 4, 2000) - Capitalism Magazine
- The Roots of Progress Institute
- Jason Crawford's website
- Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO, Boom Supersonic
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Blair (00:00):
Foreign.
Welcome to another episode of the Secular
Foxhole podcast.
Today.
Our guest is Stuart Margolis.
I hope I pronounced that correct.
Stewart (00:18):
You did he.
Blair (00:19):
And he is affiliated with the Iron Ran Institute.
Hello, Stuart.
Stewart (00:24):
Hi. I should clarify, I, I was, I recently retired.
Blair (00:28):
Oh, I see, I see, I see.
Stewart (00:30):
So I'm totally just speaking for myself here.
Blair (00:32):
Not very well.
Very well.
The reason I had you on is you wrote a greatsubstack article called where to Find the New
Intellectuals.
And I think a lot of people, not justObjectivists, are wondering where, yeah, where
can we find kindred souls, kindred spirits?And because it's, I believe the society is
(00:58):
becoming more tribal and.
Stewart (01:01):
Absolutely.
Blair (01:02):
So can you delve into the gist of your article for me?
Stewart (01:07):
Yeah, I, I, I'd be happy to.
Yeah. I think that our, our society isbecoming more tribal and I think more anti
intellectual.
There's always been an anti intellectual
streak in America, but I think it's gettingworse.
So I think it's a real challenge to figure outwhere, you know, Ayn Rand coined the term the
(01:28):
new intellectual, and one of her nonfictioncollections is titled that and you know, long
as I said, I worked for the Ayn Rand Institutepreviously for many, many years, and one of
their primary goals is to reach newintellectuals and also create new
intellectuals.
That's their Ayn Rand University program atall.
(01:50):
And I think certainly in the initial years ofthe Institute, and I think the Objectivist
movement in general, sort of by default, wealways assumed that those new intellectuals
would be found on the right.
We would, you know, go to conservative groupsto speak, we would target conservatives for,
for donations.
(02:11):
But increasingly, I think, over the last 20years, and especially over the last 10, this
anti intellectualism on the right, I think,makes it increasingly difficult to find those
people where we had hoped to find them.
And I think that it would behoove us to lookelsewhere to look, I hate to use the word on
(02:34):
the left, but just places other than theright, people that don't think of themselves
as conservative or don't think of themselvesas on the right or Republican.
I think there's a lot of people that areindependent or maybe even, you know, did vote
Democrat or whatever, but they, they have acertain intellectual curiosity that we should
(02:55):
be tapping into because Ayn Rand is incrediblyintellectual and appeals to a wide variety of
people, not just conservatives.
Martin (03:04):
Stuart, have you looked into the work of Robert Tracynski about symposium and the
liberal, the classical liberals?
Stewart (03:13):
Yeah, and I think he's absolutely right.
I think there are still, it's a small group,but there are still classical liberals that
would consider themselves on the left, wouldconsider themselves liberal.
But at this point in the culture, I thinkobjectivists have a lot more in common with
them than with say a MAGA Republican who hasbought into this cult of personality.
(03:37):
And you know, when you try and discuss ideas,they just, they're unable to.
Martin (03:42):
Yeah, and I always been against anarchist and people who are against the state
as such.
I'm for the state, but a minimal state
protecting our individual rights.
But how about the small l libertarians or that
are not anarchists if there are anywhere left?
Stewart (03:58):
I'm sure there are some, unfortunately.
I think the libertarian movement as such.
Martin (04:02):
Have they been cooped by like a MAGA version there too or.
Stewart (04:06):
Yeah, they really have.
From my understanding there's a lot of people
that have decided, well, we have to have astrong authority figure to get to where we
want to go, which makes no sense to me.
I'm working on an article for my substackright now which is quoting the famous Vietnam
War era quote, we had to destroy the town inorder to save it.
(04:31):
And I think that's kind of the mentality.
It's like, well, we have to destroy all of ourliberties in order to get to a free society.
And I don't think it works that way.
Blair (04:43):
Yeah, I think that record is spotty at best.
Haha.
Well, let's see, let me jump around my
questions here.
Martin (04:54):
Sure.
Blair (04:55):
And I didn't have this written down, but I just thought of this a little while ago.
Iran is, let's just say she's in theAristotelian school of thought, if you will.
Y and Aristotle wrote on friendship.
Do you, do you know specifically or in general
(05:15):
what he did say about friendship or.
Stewart (05:18):
I have read a little bit and I liked it, but I, I certainly.
It was long enough ago.
I, I wouldn't dare to.
But I think he did have a very positive andcorrect essentially view of friendship.
Blair (05:32):
Yeah. I think I point our viewers or listeners to Aristotle's views on friendship
for that.
But I think that you talked about there's such
epistemological confusion today about left,right, liberal, conservative, freedom,
everything.
(05:52):
And I think that's a deliberate assault byprogressives.
You have the same view or what is your view?
Stewart (06:00):
I mean, I think there has been a concerted attack on.
Yeah. On reason and on and epistemology.
The irony to me is it absolutely came from theleft, from the progressives, from, from, you
know, what we would identify as left part ofthe spectrum.
(06:22):
But Many of those tactics have now beenadopted by the right.
So there was always problems with the leftright divide, trying to classify Ayn Rand.
I mean she was vehemently in favor of awoman's right to abortion.
She was anti draft.
She, you know, she did not share all thetypical conservative views of her day.
(06:42):
She still classified herself as being on theright because at the time, at least when she
started writing that they were the more procapitalist, pro freedom side.
I don't know that that's true anymore.
I wish it were, but from the evidence I'm
seeing, I don't see that.
Blair (07:01):
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
I think that especially the Fox News types,they're blaming liberalism for all of today's
problems when it's liberalism died, I guesslong ago because, and let me, my definition of
liberalism is reason, individualism,capitalism, the founding principles of the
(07:26):
United States.
Stewart (07:27):
Right.
Blair (07:28):
They've been, they've been whitewashed for decades, ever since the 60s when this, you
know, the student radicals took, took over, Iguess.
Yeah, they've been misrepresented or ignoredor blacklisted or whatever you.
All of the above.
And so for me, conservative intellectual is acontradiction.
But no, I agree.
Stewart (07:50):
I mean there were a few intellectuals that I respected.
Didn't, didn't agree with everything butthey've been so marginalized now that they
really have no voice in the current RepublicanParty.
Martin (08:02):
How is that as a specific.
Maybe there is more to be fundamental and
talking about ideas but this, I think it wasyou, Blair, that mentioned it to me one time
and I don't agree on everything and don'tfollow everything but this what is called bull
work or bull.
Yeah, where would you position them?Are they like a small fringe in a not positive
(08:28):
way, but they are not MAGA or, or this on thebandwagon that what everything Trump is doing
is so called right as the so called leader.
I mean it had been almost a cult following.
They are going against that.
But what do they want instead?
Stewart (08:47):
I mean I don't think they're nearly as well defined as we would be as
objectivists, but I've read some of theirstuff and certainly they're much more aligned
with us than maga.
You know, they at least are attempting to uselogic and reason and not, it's not all just
these emotionalist arguments.
(09:08):
And if I can bring up a recent example, I
posted a reposted, I guess an article by myformer ARI colleague Agostina Vergara Sid on
the Venezuelan refugees that Trump wants tosend back to Venezuela, that's appalling.
These are people that escaped one of the mosthorrific dictatorships on the planet to even
(09:31):
think about sending them back.
Martin (09:33):
And same thing as, you know, when Dr.
Leonard Pico stand up for Elian Gonzalez.
I will never forgive him for doing that.
Yeah, yeah.
Stewart (09:43):
No, it's horrible to send back someone who had the bravery and the foresight
to get out of that horrible situation.
To send them back is just unspeakable.
And there were a couple of so calledobjectivist who jumped on the comments and
like, oh, you know, there's Venezuelan gangs,you know, doing this and that and complete
collectivist approach first of all.
(10:05):
And then other people jumped on the commentsand pointed out that all of these stories that
they were referencing had been completelydebunked.
They were, you know, made up nonsense like,you know, they're eating the cats and dogs in
Springfield.
Just total emotionalist non.
Just didn't happen and it doesn't matter.
Then, you know, you point to the objective
(10:26):
facts and they're like, oh yeah, well youcan't trust the liberal media.
That's, you know, it must be true because Ifeel it's true.
And when you get people that are callingthemselves Objectivists who are taking that
approach, that, that is scary to me.
Blair (10:40):
Very much so.
Returning to your article, that's.
It's all right.
No, I want, I wanted to cover all these thingsagain.
It's a very good article and I appreciated thefact that you mentioned the Progress movement,
if you will.
Can you go, go on about that for a bit?
Stewart (11:00):
A little bit, yeah.
I think one of the few positive things that I
see in the culture right now is this newProgress studies.
And I mentioned the Roots of Progress, whichis a new, fairly new group founded by Jason
Crawford.
And I've known Jason For, God, 25 years atleast back when he was a campus club
(11:25):
coordinator.
I mean, I was the coordinator, he was the
campus club student.
Martin (11:29):
He's so bright.
Stewart (11:30):
I mean he is, he was incredibly bright and talented.
I knew it back then.
And he has proven himself.
Martin (11:37):
The whole family, the Crawfords.
Stewart (11:39):
The whole family, actually.
Yeah, the Crawfords are a very smart bunch.
That's true, that's true.
But I think that what they're doing, and you
know, he's an objectivist.
I think a lot of the people involved in the
movement are.
But I don't think that you have to be.
No, but their focus on the efficacy of man and
man's use of reason to improve his life andthat, you know, that progress is possible.
(12:05):
And it's not inevitable, but if you, if yougive people freedom, then they will use their
minds and they will make great things happen.
And that's the kind of optimism that we needto see in the culture.
And I don't see any of that in sort of themainstream conservative movement.
It's all doom and gloom.
(12:27):
America's a hellscape.
The liberals have destroyed everything and
it's just not true.
And it's also not useful in creating a better
future, I think.
Blair (12:39):
Yeah, very well said.
Very well said.
I also want to mention another.
I guess I'm assuming he's objectivist Blake
Shoal of Boom Supersonic.
That's another spectacular.
Stewart (12:59):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Incredible. And Blake also was a campus clubkid and I knew him back then and always knew
he was going to do great things but had noidea it would be what he did do.
I think it's amazing and I'm very happy forhim.
Blair (13:15):
So the overall point I want to make, and you guys can chime in, there are always,
no matter how gloomy it looks out there,there's always currents going the other way.
Martin (13:28):
I interrupt you now, Blair.
It's like the great campus club magazine
undercurrent.
Stewart (13:34):
Right, Dan?
Blair (13:36):
That's a great word too.
That's a great word.
Stewart (13:38):
They're always undercurrents.
Yeah.
Blair (13:40):
So yes, there's always undercurrents flowing the other way.
And I, I've mentioned this a lot lately overthe.
Whenever I, When I began reading Ms. Rand, Iwas, I was 24ish.
This was late like 1979.
And ever since then when I, I've been a flamespotter myself And I'm sure you know the
(14:06):
reference in Atlas about that.
Stewart (14:07):
Oh absolutely.
Blair (14:09):
And I am bragging but I've introduced like 45 people to her ideas.
The novel.
Stewart (14:17):
That's worth bragging about and that's fantastic.
Blair (14:19):
And all but one said thank you.
You know, they, they, they, you know they
were.
Martin (14:27):
That's a great achievement, Claire.
And I want to do a little comment on that
also.
I was in my mid teens in 85 when the institute
started and sent to Mike Berlin and we starteda club in Gothenburg and we were at the book
fair and we got permission to translate worksinto Swedish and we, I mean I was more
(14:54):
political but I was coming from, you could saysmall L Libertarian or the so called
conservative but it was.
They are called themselves moderate but Ididn't see that they had any base.
So I want to see the liberal things and in a,in a context.
So then it Was like a youth or you could sayuniversity that was on academia that was more,
(15:17):
even more liberal.
But even there it was different fractions and
so on.
But it was not much that you came from the socalled conservative groups.
It was more liberal.
So it's interesting how the word liberal in
other parts of the world is really meaningliberal like Latin in freedom but in America
(15:38):
become so called leftist.
And that's.
I think it's time to take that back.
Stewart (15:45):
I agree, I agree very much so.
Blair (15:47):
Very much so.
Martin (15:48):
And then of course you could debate and an intellectual discussion about is it
from left to right or is it more like a circleor is it this, you know, anti.
For the individual or other things like that.
Blair (16:01):
You know, it's individualist, collectivist.
Yeah, so.
Stewart (16:04):
Yeah, exactly.
Blair (16:05):
And my, that's my.
Here's my line, I guess.
Yeah.
Sturt.
I want to thank you for coming on the show.
I know it's short lived but I, I again I. Your
article struck me so much.
I wanted to talk to you about it and I
appreciate you coming on.
Tell us where we can find you on the web.
Stewart (16:26):
Well, I have started this substack.
I think if you go to substack and put in my
name, Stuart S T E W A R T and then it'sMargolis M A R G O L I S.
Oh it's on the screen if anyone's watching.
But yeah, I think it'll pop right up.
And you can subscribe for free.
Of course.
You can also subscribe.
(16:47):
Give me money.
That's always nice but I want the readershipfirst and foremost.
I'm also on Facebook although I'm not postingas much there.
But yeah, those are the two places you canfind me.
Blair (17:01):
Do you have a title for your substack or is it just under your name?
Stewart (17:05):
Right now it's just under my name.
I am thinking of maybe calling it Bias towards
Reason but I haven't decided for sure.
Right now it's just under my name.
Martin (17:17):
Yeah. And now when you're talking and we could talk about that in future.
Got some ideas what we could do togetherbecause it's great to have you as a guest and
your article is very important and how youcould present yourself and you have lots of
experience.
So I see that when you talking about support.
So you could support this show also going to
(17:38):
like TrueFans FM and follow our podcast andbecome a fan and then you could stream
satoshis part of a bitcoin and also send itBoostergram and then we could share it with
our guests.
So I have some ideas too at what we could talkabout in the future, what we could do, because
I see lots of classical liberals andespecially objectivists that have a message
(18:02):
out there and they could spread it now thanksto technology and still freedom of expression.
So we could do that.
And with podcast and the rss and podcasting
2.0, we can't be deplatformed.
We could speak out.
Of course, we always have to take consequencesof our ideas and what we are saying.
(18:25):
But if we could reach the new intellectualsout there in different ways.
So thanks again, Blair, for doing thisquestions and reaching out to Stuart.
And hopefully we'll do a follow up in the nearfuture.
So thanks again.
Blair (18:39):
Keep writing, Stuart.
Martin (18:40):
Keep writing.
Stewart (18:41):
I will.
I'm going to be posting at least once a week.
I've got lots to say.
There's not going on in the world.
Blair (18:48):
It's hard to keep up.
Stewart (18:50):
It is hard to keep up.
Blair (18:52):
All right.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, our guest today
has been Stuart Margolis.
Stuart, thanks for manning the foxhole with
us.
Stewart (19:00):
You're very welcome.
It's been fun.
Martin (19:02):
Thanks.
Jewish.
Foreign.
Welcome to another episode of the Secular
Foxhole podcast.
Today.
Our guest is Stuart Margolis.
I hope I pronounced that correct.
Stewart (00:18):
You did he.
Blair (00:19):
And he is affiliated with the Iron Ran Institute.
Hello, Stuart.
Stewart (00:24):
Hi. I should clarify, I, I was, I recently retired.
Blair (00:28):
Oh, I see, I see, I see.
Stewart (00:30):
So I'm totally just speaking for myself here.
Blair (00:32):
Not very well.
Very well.
The reason I had you on is you wrote a greatsubstack article called where to Find the New
Intellectuals.
And I think a lot of people, not justObjectivists, are wondering where, yeah, where
can we find kindred souls, kindred spirits?And because it's, I believe the society is
(00:58):
becoming more tribal and.
Stewart (01:01):
Absolutely.
Blair (01:02):
So can you delve into the gist of your article for me?
Stewart (01:07):
Yeah, I, I, I'd be happy to.
Yeah. I think that our, our society isbecoming more tribal and I think more anti
intellectual.
There's always been an anti intellectual
streak in America, but I think it's gettingworse.
So I think it's a real challenge to figure outwhere, you know, Ayn Rand coined the term the
(01:28):
new intellectual, and one of her nonfictioncollections is titled that and you know, long
as I said, I worked for the Ayn Rand Institutepreviously for many, many years, and one of
their primary goals is to reach newintellectuals and also create new
intellectuals.
That's their Ayn Rand University program atall.
(01:50):
And I think certainly in the initial years ofthe Institute, and I think the Objectivist
movement in general, sort of by default, wealways assumed that those new intellectuals
would be found on the right.
We would, you know, go to conservative groupsto speak, we would target conservatives for,
for donations.
(02:11):
But increasingly, I think, over the last 20years, and especially over the last 10, this
anti intellectualism on the right, I think,makes it increasingly difficult to find those
people where we had hoped to find them.
And I think that it would behoove us to lookelsewhere to look, I hate to use the word on
(02:34):
the left, but just places other than theright, people that don't think of themselves
as conservative or don't think of themselvesas on the right or Republican.
I think there's a lot of people that areindependent or maybe even, you know, did vote
Democrat or whatever, but they, they have acertain intellectual curiosity that we should
(02:55):
be tapping into because Ayn Rand is incrediblyintellectual and appeals to a wide variety of
people, not just conservatives.
Martin (03:04):
Stuart, have you looked into the work of Robert Tracynski about symposium and the
liberal, the classical liberals?
Stewart (03:13):
Yeah, and I think he's absolutely right.
I think there are still, it's a small group,but there are still classical liberals that
would consider themselves on the left, wouldconsider themselves liberal.
But at this point in the culture, I thinkobjectivists have a lot more in common with
them than with say a MAGA Republican who hasbought into this cult of personality.
(03:37):
And you know, when you try and discuss ideas,they just, they're unable to.
Martin (03:42):
Yeah, and I always been against anarchist and people who are against the state
as such.
I'm for the state, but a minimal state
protecting our individual rights.
But how about the small l libertarians or that
are not anarchists if there are anywhere left?
Stewart (03:58):
I'm sure there are some, unfortunately.
I think the libertarian movement as such.
Martin (04:02):
Have they been cooped by like a MAGA version there too or.
Stewart (04:06):
Yeah, they really have.
From my understanding there's a lot of people
that have decided, well, we have to have astrong authority figure to get to where we
want to go, which makes no sense to me.
I'm working on an article for my substackright now which is quoting the famous Vietnam
War era quote, we had to destroy the town inorder to save it.
(04:31):
And I think that's kind of the mentality.
It's like, well, we have to destroy all of ourliberties in order to get to a free society.
And I don't think it works that way.
Blair (04:43):
Yeah, I think that record is spotty at best.
Haha.
Well, let's see, let me jump around my
questions here.
Martin (04:54):
Sure.
Blair (04:55):
And I didn't have this written down, but I just thought of this a little while ago.
Iran is, let's just say she's in theAristotelian school of thought, if you will.
Y and Aristotle wrote on friendship.
Do you, do you know specifically or in general
(05:15):
what he did say about friendship or.
Stewart (05:18):
I have read a little bit and I liked it, but I, I certainly.
It was long enough ago.
I, I wouldn't dare to.
But I think he did have a very positive andcorrect essentially view of friendship.
Blair (05:32):
Yeah. I think I point our viewers or listeners to Aristotle's views on friendship
for that.
But I think that you talked about there's such
epistemological confusion today about left,right, liberal, conservative, freedom,
everything.
(05:52):
And I think that's a deliberate assault byprogressives.
You have the same view or what is your view?
Stewart (06:00):
I mean, I think there has been a concerted attack on.
Yeah. On reason and on and epistemology.
The irony to me is it absolutely came from theleft, from the progressives, from, from, you
know, what we would identify as left part ofthe spectrum.
(06:22):
But Many of those tactics have now beenadopted by the right.
So there was always problems with the leftright divide, trying to classify Ayn Rand.
I mean she was vehemently in favor of awoman's right to abortion.
She was anti draft.
She, you know, she did not share all thetypical conservative views of her day.
(06:42):
She still classified herself as being on theright because at the time, at least when she
started writing that they were the more procapitalist, pro freedom side.
I don't know that that's true anymore.
I wish it were, but from the evidence I'm
seeing, I don't see that.
Blair (07:01):
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
I think that especially the Fox News types,they're blaming liberalism for all of today's
problems when it's liberalism died, I guesslong ago because, and let me, my definition of
liberalism is reason, individualism,capitalism, the founding principles of the
(07:26):
United States.
Stewart (07:27):
Right.
Blair (07:28):
They've been, they've been whitewashed for decades, ever since the 60s when this, you
know, the student radicals took, took over, Iguess.
Yeah, they've been misrepresented or ignoredor blacklisted or whatever you.
All of the above.
And so for me, conservative intellectual is acontradiction.
But no, I agree.
Stewart (07:50):
I mean there were a few intellectuals that I respected.
Didn't, didn't agree with everything butthey've been so marginalized now that they
really have no voice in the current RepublicanParty.
Martin (08:02):
How is that as a specific.
Maybe there is more to be fundamental and
talking about ideas but this, I think it wasyou, Blair, that mentioned it to me one time
and I don't agree on everything and don'tfollow everything but this what is called bull
work or bull.
Yeah, where would you position them?Are they like a small fringe in a not positive
(08:28):
way, but they are not MAGA or, or this on thebandwagon that what everything Trump is doing
is so called right as the so called leader.
I mean it had been almost a cult following.
They are going against that.
But what do they want instead?
Stewart (08:47):
I mean I don't think they're nearly as well defined as we would be as
objectivists, but I've read some of theirstuff and certainly they're much more aligned
with us than maga.
You know, they at least are attempting to uselogic and reason and not, it's not all just
these emotionalist arguments.
(09:08):
And if I can bring up a recent example, I
posted a reposted, I guess an article by myformer ARI colleague Agostina Vergara Sid on
the Venezuelan refugees that Trump wants tosend back to Venezuela, that's appalling.
These are people that escaped one of the mosthorrific dictatorships on the planet to even
(09:31):
think about sending them back.
Martin (09:33):
And same thing as, you know, when Dr.
Leonard Pico stand up for Elian Gonzalez.
I will never forgive him for doing that.
Yeah, yeah.
Stewart (09:43):
No, it's horrible to send back someone who had the bravery and the foresight
to get out of that horrible situation.
To send them back is just unspeakable.
And there were a couple of so calledobjectivist who jumped on the comments and
like, oh, you know, there's Venezuelan gangs,you know, doing this and that and complete
collectivist approach first of all.
(10:05):
And then other people jumped on the commentsand pointed out that all of these stories that
they were referencing had been completelydebunked.
They were, you know, made up nonsense like,you know, they're eating the cats and dogs in
Springfield.
Just total emotionalist non.
Just didn't happen and it doesn't matter.
Then, you know, you point to the objective
(10:26):
facts and they're like, oh yeah, well youcan't trust the liberal media.
That's, you know, it must be true because Ifeel it's true.
And when you get people that are callingthemselves Objectivists who are taking that
approach, that, that is scary to me.
Blair (10:40):
Very much so.
Returning to your article, that's.
It's all right.
No, I want, I wanted to cover all these thingsagain.
It's a very good article and I appreciated thefact that you mentioned the Progress movement,
if you will.
Can you go, go on about that for a bit?
Stewart (11:00):
A little bit, yeah.
I think one of the few positive things that I
see in the culture right now is this newProgress studies.
And I mentioned the Roots of Progress, whichis a new, fairly new group founded by Jason
Crawford.
And I've known Jason For, God, 25 years atleast back when he was a campus club
(11:25):
coordinator.
I mean, I was the coordinator, he was the
campus club student.
Martin (11:29):
He's so bright.
Stewart (11:30):
I mean he is, he was incredibly bright and talented.
I knew it back then.
And he has proven himself.
Martin (11:37):
The whole family, the Crawfords.
Stewart (11:39):
The whole family, actually.
Yeah, the Crawfords are a very smart bunch.
That's true, that's true.
But I think that what they're doing, and you
know, he's an objectivist.
I think a lot of the people involved in the
movement are.
But I don't think that you have to be.
No, but their focus on the efficacy of man and
man's use of reason to improve his life andthat, you know, that progress is possible.
(12:05):
And it's not inevitable, but if you, if yougive people freedom, then they will use their
minds and they will make great things happen.
And that's the kind of optimism that we needto see in the culture.
And I don't see any of that in sort of themainstream conservative movement.
It's all doom and gloom.
(12:27):
America's a hellscape.
The liberals have destroyed everything and
it's just not true.
And it's also not useful in creating a better
future, I think.
Blair (12:39):
Yeah, very well said.
Very well said.
I also want to mention another.
I guess I'm assuming he's objectivist Blake
Shoal of Boom Supersonic.
That's another spectacular.
Stewart (12:59):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Incredible. And Blake also was a campus clubkid and I knew him back then and always knew
he was going to do great things but had noidea it would be what he did do.
I think it's amazing and I'm very happy forhim.
Blair (13:15):
So the overall point I want to make, and you guys can chime in, there are always,
no matter how gloomy it looks out there,there's always currents going the other way.
Martin (13:28):
I interrupt you now, Blair.
It's like the great campus club magazine
undercurrent.
Stewart (13:34):
Right, Dan?
Blair (13:36):
That's a great word too.
That's a great word.
Stewart (13:38):
They're always undercurrents.
Yeah.
Blair (13:40):
So yes, there's always undercurrents flowing the other way.
And I, I've mentioned this a lot lately overthe.
Whenever I, When I began reading Ms. Rand, Iwas, I was 24ish.
This was late like 1979.
And ever since then when I, I've been a flamespotter myself And I'm sure you know the
(14:06):
reference in Atlas about that.
Stewart (14:07):
Oh absolutely.
Blair (14:09):
And I am bragging but I've introduced like 45 people to her ideas.
The novel.
Stewart (14:17):
That's worth bragging about and that's fantastic.
Blair (14:19):
And all but one said thank you.
You know, they, they, they, you know they
were.
Martin (14:27):
That's a great achievement, Claire.
And I want to do a little comment on that
also.
I was in my mid teens in 85 when the institute
started and sent to Mike Berlin and we starteda club in Gothenburg and we were at the book
fair and we got permission to translate worksinto Swedish and we, I mean I was more
(14:54):
political but I was coming from, you could saysmall L Libertarian or the so called
conservative but it was.
They are called themselves moderate but Ididn't see that they had any base.
So I want to see the liberal things and in a,in a context.
So then it Was like a youth or you could sayuniversity that was on academia that was more,
(15:17):
even more liberal.
But even there it was different fractions and
so on.
But it was not much that you came from the socalled conservative groups.
It was more liberal.
So it's interesting how the word liberal in
other parts of the world is really meaningliberal like Latin in freedom but in America
(15:38):
become so called leftist.
And that's.
I think it's time to take that back.
Stewart (15:45):
I agree, I agree very much so.
Blair (15:47):
Very much so.
Martin (15:48):
And then of course you could debate and an intellectual discussion about is it
from left to right or is it more like a circleor is it this, you know, anti.
For the individual or other things like that.
Blair (16:01):
You know, it's individualist, collectivist.
Yeah, so.
Stewart (16:04):
Yeah, exactly.
Blair (16:05):
And my, that's my.
Here's my line, I guess.
Yeah.
Sturt.
I want to thank you for coming on the show.
I know it's short lived but I, I again I. Your
article struck me so much.
I wanted to talk to you about it and I
appreciate you coming on.
Tell us where we can find you on the web.
Stewart (16:26):
Well, I have started this substack.
I think if you go to substack and put in my
name, Stuart S T E W A R T and then it'sMargolis M A R G O L I S.
Oh it's on the screen if anyone's watching.
But yeah, I think it'll pop right up.
And you can subscribe for free.
Of course.
You can also subscribe.
(16:47):
Give me money.
That's always nice but I want the readershipfirst and foremost.
I'm also on Facebook although I'm not postingas much there.
But yeah, those are the two places you canfind me.
Blair (17:01):
Do you have a title for your substack or is it just under your name?
Stewart (17:05):
Right now it's just under my name.
I am thinking of maybe calling it Bias towards
Reason but I haven't decided for sure.
Right now it's just under my name.
Martin (17:17):
Yeah. And now when you're talking and we could talk about that in future.
Got some ideas what we could do togetherbecause it's great to have you as a guest and
your article is very important and how youcould present yourself and you have lots of
experience.
So I see that when you talking about support.
So you could support this show also going to
(17:38):
like TrueFans FM and follow our podcast andbecome a fan and then you could stream
satoshis part of a bitcoin and also send itBoostergram and then we could share it with
our guests.
So I have some ideas too at what we could talkabout in the future, what we could do, because
I see lots of classical liberals andespecially objectivists that have a message
(18:02):
out there and they could spread it now thanksto technology and still freedom of expression.
So we could do that.
And with podcast and the rss and podcasting
2.0, we can't be deplatformed.
We could speak out.
Of course, we always have to take consequencesof our ideas and what we are saying.
(18:25):
But if we could reach the new intellectualsout there in different ways.
So thanks again, Blair, for doing thisquestions and reaching out to Stuart.
And hopefully we'll do a follow up in the nearfuture.
So thanks again.
Blair (18:39):
Keep writing, Stuart.
Martin (18:40):
Keep writing.
Stewart (18:41):
I will.
I'm going to be posting at least once a week.
I've got lots to say.
There's not going on in the world.
Blair (18:48):
It's hard to keep up.
Stewart (18:50):
It is hard to keep up.
Blair (18:52):
All right.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, our guest today
has been Stuart Margolis.
Stuart, thanks for manning the foxhole with
us.
Stewart (19:00):
You're very welcome.
It's been fun.
Martin (19:02):
Thanks.
Jewish.
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