I heard rumblings of a new Objectivist magazine at OCON, so I’m delighted to see more evidence of its impending arrival! The Objective Standard: A Review of Politics and Culture will be a quarterly journal, premiering in the spring of 2006.

The Objective Standard is a quarterly journal of culture and politics written from the perspective that man’s life on earth is the proper standard of morality. According to this principle, that which supports or promotes an individual’s life is good, that which retards or destroys it is evil. The purpose of the journal is to analyze and evaluate ideas, trends, events, and policies with respect to this standard.

The Objective Standard provides a rational, principled alternative to the ideas of both liberalism and conservatism. Whereas liberals hold that morality is subjective (i.e., feeling-based), that majority opinion is the standard of value, that sacrifice for the common good is noble, and that rights are social conventions; and whereas conservatives hold that morality is grounded in religion (i.e., faith-based), that God’s will is the standard of value, that sacrifice in obedience to His commands is good, and that rights are divine decrees; we hold that morality is grounded in the objective requirements of human life (i.e., reason-based), that man’s life is the standard of value, that the selfish pursuit of one’s life-serving goals is good, and that individual rights are moral principles defining the basic requirements of a civilized society. Ours is a philosophy of reason, egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism. In a word, we advocate Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and we apply this philosophy to the cultural and political issues of the day.

Contributing writers include Craig Biddle, Yaron Brook, Alex Epstein, Elan Journo, Keith Lockitch, Larry Salzman, and Lisa VanDamme.

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