The Covid-19 pandemic and the response to it at multiple levels of government have disrupted all of our lives.

We’re just beginning to contemplate the challenge of reopening and rebuilding the economy in the face of ongoing viral spread. To do that, it’s critical to employ the right philosophical framework for thinking about these issues, so as not to be misled by false alternatives, wishful thinking, tribalistic finger-pointing and other forms of distorted thinking.

On April 18, Marc Andreessen, the influential Silicon Valley venture capitalist, published an essay that has reverberated across social media. In “It’s Time To Build,” Andreessen observed that “Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings” and he went on to offer an explanation for why we’re in this situation — and what we need to do to get out of it.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo is joined by Tal Tsfany, CEO of the Ayn Rand Institute and former tech entrepreneur, and Jason Crawford, writer and co-founder of several tech startups.

Journo, Tsfany and Crawford discuss a recently published essay by Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, called “It’s Time to Build.” Andreessen attempts to explain the widespread failure to prepare for this pandemic and how to move forward.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Keith Lockitch analyze a recent Vox article, “These are the trade-offs we make when we depend on billionaires to save us.” The article warns that by involving themselves in charity work during the pandemic crisis, billionaires will only cement the power they wield over our lives.

Marc Andreessen, the influential Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has lit up social media with his essay on the pandemic, “It’s Time to Build.” He writes:

Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade, but it’s not too early to ask why, and what we need to do about it.

The Covid-19 pandemic is probably the most daunting health crisis the world has faced in generations. Experts on pandemics have been warning us for years about the potential for an outbreak like this, but their warnings went unheeded, and many countries were not ready to test for, isolate, and trace cases.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, philosophers Aaron Smith and Onkar Ghate analyze a recent Bloomberg.com article, “How Coronavirus Is Shaking Up the Moral Universe.” That article surveys “some of the leading idea systems undergirding competing conceptions of right and wrong,” informing the views of governments and individuals in response to the pandemic.

How should we sort through the information about Covid-19 and distinguish fact from falsehood? In the first episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Onkar Ghate sat down to discuss the claims around the drug hydroxychloroquine and the debate over mandatory lockdowns. The discussion provides philosophic guidance for individuals to better navigate the flood of information coming from the news and social media.

By the hour, we are learning more about the spread and lethality of the novel coronavirus. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically upended our lives and economy, it has also brought into sharper focus the dire consequences of putting in the nation’s highest office someone who’s at war with the truth.  

Even ardent supporters of Donald Trump acknowledge that he
spins, exaggerates, stretches, invents facts.

Emergency rooms are jammed with COVID-19 patients, fighting for their lives. Doctors, nurses, and front-line healthcare workers are receiving much-deserved praise and appreciation, even though (as I argued in earlier article) they’re still under-valued.

Reflecting on this crisis, I’ve come to have a deeper
appreciation for another group of heroic individuals.

The pandemic is showing that, all around us, there are under-appreciated
heroes.

Legions of them work in hospitals. What’s become clear in
New York and elsewhere is that doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are
up against battlefield-like conditions. The lack
of widespread testing, the desperate scarcity of ventilators and dwindling
supplies of personal protective equipment, such as face masks, have made their
work far more difficult and greatly increased their risk.

In these challenging times, people need clarity. But how can you cut through the noise? How do you step outside the bubble of commentary which puts partisan loyalty above the facts? Where can you find analysis informed by an unwavering dedication to objectivity?

At the Ayn Rand Institute, we are dedicated to this ideal.