The new OActivists list — my informal private mailing list for Objectivists committed to fostering positive cultural change by effective advocacy of Objectivist ideas — will open for business on Tuesday. It already has over 80 subscribers, but I want to offer an easy deal for anyone interested in subscribing yet hesitant to make a commitment to engage in activism.
As you might recall from my original post, the list requires that subscribers meet two conditions.
First, subscribers must be Objectivists, meaning that they agree with and live by the principles of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. Subscribers should also support the mission and activities of the Ayn Rand Institute.
Second, subscribers must be committed to engaging in intellectual activism to promote Objectivist ideas in online or print forums on a semi-regular basis.
The first criterion is pretty straightforward. But what does satisfying the second require? I’m willing make that very, very easy. Basically, at least once every six months while you’re on the list, you must post at least one comment advocating the Objectivist view on some news article, op-ed, or non-Objectivist blog. That comment doesn’t have to be long: just a few sentences will do. You could even just link to or quote from an essay by Ayn Rand or an op-ed from ARI. You’ll be alerted to plenty of opportunities to engage in that kind of minimal activism via the OActivists list itself.
In fact, you could even get started by posting a friendly comment on this positive review of The Fountainhead by a blogger.
Of course, I will encourage subscribers to do more than just the minimum: they can write letters to the editor, publish op-eds, speak to local groups, write to their representatives, and so on. In fact, I hope that a person’s experience with a wee bit of activism will embolden more. However, that wee bit — just one comment in a public forum every six months — is all that’s required to subscribe to the OActivists list. Basically, that’s five minutes of time every six months. That’s not asking much in exchange for the value of subscribing to the list, I don’t think.
If that sounds like a fair deal to you, you are more than welcome to subscribe to OActivists via its web interface.
