VOLUME 1 | EDITION 2

March 2026

Index

1 - Founder’s Message

2 - Atlantis & Membership

3 - Upcoming Events

4 - Publications

1 - Founder’s Message

February was an exciting month for the Australian Centre for Objectivism.

Our Sydney discussion group met in a beautiful new venue at Babylon Rooftop & Garden Bar, which I had the pleasure of visiting during a recent trip to the city. The energy in the room was fantastic and the discussion continued long after the formal session ended, a reminder that there is a real appetite for serious philosophical discussion in Australia.

Behind the scenes we continued building the organisation. Pallavee has been doing excellent work developing our marketing efforts and expanding the reach of ACO’s programs.

Several major projects also moved forward. The restored film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s We the Living is now being submitted to three Australian film festivals, an important step toward bringing this remarkable restoration to Australian audiences.

We also held our first Atlantis members meeting, featuring Objectivist intellectual and Ayn Rand Institute fellow Mike Mazza, giving members direct access to leading thinkers working on Objectivism today.

March will be another busy month. Canberra discussion groups have now launched, expanding ACO’s presence to the nation’s capital. Our discussion topic across all groups will be “Reason & Emotion,” and we are delighted to have Jennifer Minjarez, PhD candidate in philosophy at Princeton University, leading the Atlantis members discussion.

There will also be two events at Australian National University this month: a debate with the ANU Platypus Society on the motion “Capitalism promotes freedom,” and a public lecture I will give on “Why Capitalism is the Only Moral System,” organised by Students for Liberty.

Beginning this month we will also publish articles related to the discussion topic, and we invite members and readers to submit their work for consideration.

Everything ACO does is made possible by the generosity of our members. If you would like to support this project, please consider becoming an Atlantis member or encouraging others to subscribe to the newsletter.

Thank you to everyone who has helped make these first months such a success. The momentum we are seeing is extremely encouraging.

Maxim Bishev
Founder | Australian Centre for Objectivism

2 - Atlantis Members’ Meeting

Expert Guest: Jennifer Minjarez (Princeton University)

Our next Atlantis members meeting will take place on:

15 March 2026 – 10:00 AM (AEST)

Our guest will be Jennifer Minjarez, PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Princeton University, where she teaches undergraduate philosophy and is completing her doctoral research on free will and human agency.

Jennifer is a longstanding and deeply thoughtful Objectivist intellectual. She will lead the discussion on this month’s topic: Reason & Emotion.

These meetings are exclusive to Atlantis members.

To participate, you can become a member here:
https://objectivism.au/support

3 - Upcoming Events

Topic: Reason & Emotion

This discussion examines the relationship between reason and emotions, rejecting both emotionalism and emotional repression. The aim is to clarify what emotions are, what they are not, and how to be rational about one’s own emotional states.

Melbourne: Monday | March 16, Hawthorn

Glenferrie Hotel | 6pm - 9pm

Save Melbourne Calendar

Sydney: Thursday | March 19, CBD

Babylon Rooftop and Garden Bar | 6pm - 9pm

Save Sydney Calendar

Canberra: Every Friday, ANU

Rex Espresso, Australian National University | 10am - 11:30am

Save Canberra Calendar

Special Events:

Canberra: Monday | March 16, ANU

Badger & Co, Australian National University | 6pm - 8pm

Maxim Bishev will participate in a panel debate against a Marxist organisation at ANU on the resolution: “Capitalism promotes freedom”.

Co-hosted by Students for Liberty and The Platypus Society.

Canberra: Wednesday | March 25, ANU

Hayden-Allen Building (Room TBC), Australian National University | 7pm - 8pm

Maxim Bishev will deliver a talk on the topic: “Why Capitalism is the Only Moral System”, followed by a Q&A and an informal gathering at Badger & Co.

Hosted by Students for Liberty.

4 - Publications

March’s intellectual output features a brilliant article by student contributor Janar Takis on Western appeasement of Russia, a clarification of why Rand considers value to be both objective and relational, and an answer to a question about whether the assassination of Iran’s leader violates the country’s sovereignty.

“The Impracticality of Pragmatism” by Janar Takis

For four years Western leaders feared a hypothetical escalation and delayed decisive action. In doing so they helped create a far more dangerous situation: a hardened Russia supported by authoritarian allies.

This outcome was not inevitable. A principled strategy would have recognized the nature of the regime from the beginning. Dictatorial aggression cannot be “managed.” It must be defeated.

Value as Objective and Relational

According to this traditional dichotomy, values either exist apart from valuers (intrinsicism) or do not exist in any philosophical sense, representing only psychological dispositions (subjectivism). Rand defends an objective account of values. On this view, certain things are objectively values to a living organism. A value is something a living organism “acts to gain and/or keep.” The standard of value is the individual’s own life. For human beings, the purpose of that life is happiness.

The Assassination of Iran’s Ali Khamenei

Answering a Question: “Doesn’t the United States’ killing of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, violate the sovereignty of Iran?”

Contributors Wanted
Future contributors to all topics are encouraged to email info@objectivism.au with their submissions.