Libertarian film screening of Brazil
Tom Stringer has arranged a really fun Saturday morning outing on Saturday August 3rd. It's a showing of the movie "Brazil" in the Everyman theatre at 96-98 Baker Street. There's a coffee bar for pre-movie snacks, and a real bar for those who can't wait for their gin and tonic. Everyone's in for a treat, with most going along to local pubs afterwards for lunch with a pint.
"Brazil is set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. Brazil's bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of the government depicted in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, except that it has a buffoonish, slapstick quality and lacks a Big Brother figure."
Sign up quickly for this on the facebook page. You won't want to miss the movie and the camaraderie of like-minded fans.
Margaret - Death of a Revolutionary
Martin Durkin's documentary is to be shown on Channel 4 at 7.00pm on Saturday April 13th. Amid all the anti-Thatcher myths put out by the chatterati, this movie offers a refreshing assessment of how she changed the lives of ordinary people for the better.
"Martin Durkin's controversial thesis is that Margaret Thatcher was a working class revolutionary. She believed that capitalism was in the interests of ordinary people, not the toffs. Many ordinary people agreed. And that is why the left hated her so much - Margaret Thatcher stole the working class."
The documentary features interviews with many of those who knew and worked with Lady Thatcher, including brief contributions from Dr Madsen Pirie, the ASI's President.
Samizdata on what the Adam Smith Institute did
This week on Samizdata, Brian Micklethwait has been writing some very nice things about the Adam Smith Institute and Madsen Pirie's book 'Think Tank'.
He writes in regard to 'Think Tank': "The fact that I particularly enjoyed these early pages suggests to me that someone who only recently became aware of the ASI might enjoy this book even more than I did, which was a lot. If you have only recently arrived on the libertarian-stroke-pro-free-market scene, and the only thing you know about the Adam Smith Institute is that they are there, alive and kicking, blogging and publishing, arranging public meetings and not so public meetings, generally advancing the libertarian economic and political agenda wherever they can, in London and everywhere else on earth that beckons, and that everyone else you admire thinks they’re terrific people, then this could be just the book for you. It will tell you how they got where they are, and what they did for the next three decades. And it does this in the style of a man who is not, as he freely admits, always accomplishing all that he wants to accomplish, but who is nevertheless engaged in the exact struggle that he wants to be in, and who is therefore fundamentally happy. The style is long on entertaining and often quite self-critical anecdotage, less burdened with much in the way of earnest tactical or strategic theorising."
You can read Brian's full review here.
Adam Smith Institute ranked among top 10 economic think tanks in the world
Today, the University of Pennsylvania has released its authoritative Global Go To Think Tanks Report’s rankings of over 6,500 think tanks. The Adam Smith Institute is delighted to be placed 7th in the world for domestic economic policy and 10th for international economic policy.
These rankings place us in the same league as think tanks with budgets a hundred times bigger than ours. They confirm that we make a big difference, are highly cost-effective, and have earned the respect of our peers around the world. We were also named as the think tank with the 18th most significant impact on public policy in the world.
These rankings for 2012 confirm the Adam Smith Institute as one of the world’s leading policy think tanks, effectively fighting for free markets and a free society. 2012 has been an exceptional year and the impact of our work is reflected in our excellent position in the global rankings.
"This is a marvellous endorsement of our young, focused, energetic team, who have outperformed much larger institutions in terms of impact and cost-effectiveness", said Adam Smith Institute Director Dr Eamonn Butler. "I am proud to work alongside them in one of the world's leading policy think tanks."
Congratulations to Sam Bowman!
The ASI's Sam Bowman has topped Lib Dem Voice's poll to select "Liberal Voice of the Year," beating off stiff competition from rivals such as Hugh Grant and Rowan Williams. While this is by no means a Nobel Peace Prize (such as was won by Al Gore, Barack Obama and the European Union), it is nonetheless important recognition of Sam's brave stance for free market social justice, immigration, drugs law reform, equal marriage, and his opposition to bank bailouts. Sam has tirelessly appeared on numerous radio and TV programmes as the voice of liberal sanity and decency amid a cacophony of intolerance and pack-hunting populism. It is recognition, too, for the ASI's continued commitment to a libertarian free-market stance at a time when others pursue witch-hunts against business people and other wealth creators. Bravo Sam; it's a well-deserved honour.
Speaking to the IREF in Paris
In Paris on Thursday I addressed a meeting of IREF, the Institute for Research into Economic and Fiscal Issues, which is a French free market and broadly libertarian outfit whose scholarly research and press briefings try to nudge France in the general direction of soundness. Given Francois Hollande, they face a tough task.
I was asked to speak about how think tanks might hope to influence events, and I put forward the view that it is not just sound policies that are needed, but ones that are realistic, practical, and likely to bring success and popularity to the political leaders who implement them. To some extent this involves careful examination of the interest groups which stand to gain or to lose, and an innovative slant to the policies that takes those groups into account.
I delivered the speech in French, having prepared it in advance, and after the discussion there was a most civilized session in which a sommelier introduced some French wines which we then sampled along with charcuterie, cheeses and French breads. I found myself wondering if it’s a format the Adam Smith Institute might try out to see how popular it might be in the UK.
Roast Salmond
My colleague, Dr Eamonn Butler, was quite right to castigate Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister, for his disparaging remarks about Adam Smith and the Institute that proudly bears his name. Every few years some left-winger, usually a politician, tries the claim that Smith was really a sort of proto-socialist. It is never convincing because he was nothing like that.
At the ASI we always stress Smith's "Theory of Moral Sentiments" as a companion and precursor to his "Wealth of Nations." The left seem to think we treat Smith as someone who promoted selfishness, whereas the opposite is the truth. He said that our most salient characteristic is our ability to empathize (he said feel sympathy) with others.
The act of wealth creation, which requires trade, puts our co-operation with our fellow men and women right at the start of market economics. They trade so that each gains greater value than they had. Without that co-operation there would be no exchange and no wealth-creation.
Eamonn's very apt put-down of Alex Salmond was this:
“I shall be pleased to send him copies of Adam Smith – A Primer, my dummie’s guide to all of Adam Smith’s work. It includes not just the Theory of Moral Sentiments but his lectures on jurisprudence and on literature, which Alex may not be familiar with.”
On National Poetry Day...
...here is one of my favourite poems by Ogden Nash, which is as appropriate now as it was when he wrote it in the midst of the US government's measures to prevent 'overproduction' during the Great Depression.
One From One Leaves Two
Higgledy piggledy, my black hen,
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
Gentlemen come every day
To count what my black hen doth lay.
If perchance she lays too many,
They fine my hen a pretty penny;
If perchance she fails to lay,
The gentlemen a bonus pay.
Mumbledy pumbledy, my red cow,
She’s cooperating now.
At first she didn’t understand
That milk production must be planned;
She didn’t understand at first
She either had to plan or burst,
But now the government reports
She’s giving pints instead of quarts.
Fiddle de dee, my next-door neighbors,
They are giggling at their labors.
First they plant the tiny seed,
Then they water, then they weed,
Then they hoe and prune and lop,
They they raise a record crop,
Then they laugh their sides asunder,
And plow the whole caboodle under.
Abracadabra, thus we learn
The more you create, the less you earn.
The less you earn, the more you’re given,
The less you lead, the more you’re driven,
The more destroyed, the more they feed,
The more you pay, the more they need,
The more you earn, the less you keep,
And now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to take
If the tax-collector hasn’t got it before I wake.
— Ogden Nash
Going to Mars
The sad death of Neil Armstrong reminds us that after 12 Americans walked on the moon no-one else did. They were able to do it very quickly because they broke it down into stages - Earth orbit, lunar orbit, lunar descent, lunar ascent, home. Werner von Braun wanted a direct flight but was over-ruled and graciously accepted the change, making it all possible with his Saturn V rocket. Not a single one failed, and the first manned flight of it went round the moon.
Mars is more difficult technically because it involves a greater distance and longer journey times. Here's how it might be done much sooner than people are now predicting.
1. Send the unmanned ascent stage to land on Mars.
2. When we know it has arrived safe with all systems working, send the return vehicle (complete with supplies for the voyage) to Mars orbit.
3. When we know that it has arrived safe with all systems working, send the astronauts. They could fly direct to the planet, using a short route, or dock in Mars orbit with a waiting descent stage. From Mars orbit they descend, do their research, and use the waiting ascent stage to reach the return craft waiting in orbit.
What Apollo did not do that we now can do is to send some of the hardware ahead. This means we do not have to carry the entire mission hardware with us, and can therefore use smaller vehicles and faster, less time-consuming trajectories.
I cordially invite some of our techno-geek readers to suggest ways in which this might actually be done…
[The historically minded might note that Neil Armstrong put the first footprint on the moon 8 years after President Kennedy's famous challenge. It was only 66 years after the Wright brothers' aircraft first flew]
