We are thrilled to announce that our friend Professor John Tomasi will be the discussion leader for our upcoming Liberty Fund Symposium on The Institutions of Liberty. Dr. Tomasi is a professor of political philosophy at Brown University and director of the Political Theory Project. He is also the author of the new book Free Market Fairness, which argues that libertarians can and should care about social justice. His theory of free market fairness is committed to both limited government and the material betterment of the poor.

The SFL & Liberty Fund Symposia are a fantastic opportunity for student interested in a deeper understanding of the ideas of a free society. These three-day events are built around a Socratic discussion of the topic between fifteen student participants and an academic discussion leader.  Over the past fifty years scores of aspiring intellectuals have attended Liberty Fund events to discuss and debate the ideas of liberty with their brightest peers. They have been described as the most intellectually challenging events our students have ever participated in.

This symposium will focus on The Institutions of Liberty. Logistical details:

• Start Date/Time: Friday, August 2 at 5:00pm Eastern Time
• End Date/Time: Sunday, August 4 at 1:30pm Eastern Time
• Location: Arlington, VA
• Application Deadline: Friday, June 14

For the past 12 days Turkish citizens have stood up for their right to protest against an increasingly tyrannical government. What started out as a protest against the destruction of a park in Turkey escalated after police were reported to have used violence against protesters. The demonstrations have sparked an international debate about the corruption of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  According to Hurriyet Daily News a majority of the protesters identify as libertarian. But just how libertarian are these protests? What exactly is going on? We reached out to our friends at European Students For Liberty and discovered a liberty oriented student organization, 3H, that became involved in the protests shortly after they began.

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In the wake of the past week’s leaks on NSA and CIA data collection, phone data collection, and flat-out spying on American citizens (and the rest of the world), Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) wants to challenge the NSA’s spying in court, with hopes of taking the agency to the Supreme Court.

“I’m going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level. I’m going to be asking all the internet providers and all of the phone companies: Ask your customers to join me in a class action lawsuit. If we get 10 million Americans saying we don’t want our phone records looked at, then maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington.”

If what Senator Paul is attempting to accomplish is to really just raise a massive lawsuit to garner media attention on the issue of government violations of privacy rights, then this may really be a great tactic to do so. If millions of Americans are joined together in an effort to challenge the secret and possibly unlawful spying techniques of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, then perhaps politicians on Capitol Hill will change their tones in hopes to maintain popularity. If Paul’s lawsuit really catches on and even the median voter seems swayed by his challenge, then Congressmen and women may really start giving a stronger look at these spying techniques. Something could really change in the Capitol. If the lawsuit doesn’t really catch on, then it doesn’t really seem like there is much foul there. Americans will have simply proven the cynic’s conjecture that they really don’t care about their own privacy so long as they have nothing to hide.

There is a much more terrifying prospect to Paul’s potential challenge, though.

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It’s not too late to register for the Atlas Summit, the annual conference of open Objectivism! The Atlas Summit runs Thursday, June 27 to Sunday, June 30 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC. More than 30 sessions will discuss politics, culture, art, and life and how to live it from an Objectivist and pro-liberty perspective.

Students can take advantage of a heavily discounted student registration rate. Thursday, June 27 features a special program just for students. It consists of a course “Objectivism: A Rational Philosophy for the Hero in Your Soul” taught by TAS’s Alexander Cohen, and a session on Objectivism activism on campus lead by SFL’s Alexander McCobin.  It’s a great way to kick off a fantastic long weekend of ideas and inspiration!

Students who are in Washington can request tuition waivers as late as June 26. Some travel funds can also be reimbursed. Students can also request free room and board, but they’re going fast and after June 13 there may not be rooms available.

Questions or comments? Contact William Thomas, the conference director: wthomas@atlassociety.org, 202-AYN-RAND, extension 2007.

This blog post was sent in by Jonida Ndreu. She was part of the first generation of ESFL Local Coordinators. This is her story.

Coming from the post communist country Albania, I knew very little about the ideas of liberty. Furthermore even less did I know about existing organizations such as European Student For Liberty… But I guess the beauty of life lies in the surprises that it gives to you, the people you meet, the ideas that they present to you and somehow your life changes… But this is not a love story, this is a story about discovering liberty!

I did not have any background information on liberty or classical liberalism but I had a thirst for this knowledge, I wanted to learn something different than what I used to see in my country. Some of our friends introduced me and my sister to Frederik Cyrus Roeder, then Chairman of ESFL, and that’s how we got to know about European Student For Liberty. I started following the organization online and I was constantly seeing different posts by so many people about their events. This got me interested and I wanted to apply and be part of this organization with such great young energy for liberty. Last year I applied for the Local Coordinator Program and It has been one of best decisions I ever made!

I got to be part of an amazing training seminar for all LC’s, where we could discuss freely our ideas about liberty with each other. Seeing and hearing different arguments on several public policies was a great challenge for me. The great thing about ESFL is that you are free to choose your own approach to the philosophy of liberty and libertarian issues, which, I think, is very unique. In many other organizations you would follow one way to look at the ideas and somehow this prevents you from growing or exploring liberty in other aspects as well. ESFL focuses on spreading the ideas of liberty and sees diversity within its structure as an asset to that goal!

Moreover, in ESFL you will get to meet people of the same age from all over Europe and hear their stories, learn about their work in different countries, how they are promoting liberty to other students, all the great conferences and events that they organize. This is inspiring and renews hope whenever you start to doubt about yourself or the student movement for liberty. This is a network that you shouldn’t miss out on. From my own experiences, European Student For Liberty is the best student driven organization out there. Don’t hesitate, apply to be a Local Coordinator and be part of this great organization!