Ayn Rand's Repudiation of the UN

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss Ayn Rand’s distinctive, philosophical perspective on the United Nations.

Among the topics covered:

Ayn Rand’s commentary on the UN as an example of her engagement with the important issues of her time;
Ayn Rand’s philosophical evaluation of the UN vs. other conventional views;
The “grotesque pretense” of an organization with Soviet Russia as a charter member;
The consequences of the UN’s moral equivalence between free countries and dictatorships;
How the UN Human Rights Council provides moral cover for evil regimes such as Venezuela and Cuba;
The contradiction of having dictatorships monitor violations of rights;
Whether essentially free countries benefit from membership in the UN;
Whether the UN can be reformed;
The difference between “humans rights” and “individual rights.”

Mentioned in the discussion are Ayn Rand’s essay “The Anatomy of Compromise” from her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Elan Journo’s essay “The UN’s Unscrupulous Attacks on Israel,” Agustina Vergara Cid’s essay “How the UN Whitewashes China’s Crushing of Free Speech” and the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on “foreign policy.”

This podcast was recorded on August 10, 2021. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.