Objectivism, libertarianism, and smoking

I shall be in Scotland this weekend, speaking to members of Students for Liberty Edinburgh and the Edinburgh University Objectivist Society.

Subject: ‘Smokers’ rights and the war on nicotine’.

I’ve spoken to Students for Liberty groups several times but I had never heard of the Objectivist Society, or objectivism, so I had to look it up.

According to one definition:

Objectivism holds that reality is an absolute - that facts are facts, regardless of anyone's hopes, fears, or desires.

Another writer describes it as ‘the philosophy of rational individualism’:

Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving one's happiness. But one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. It requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs.

Objectivism is credited to author and philosopher Ayn Rand but as I’ve never read The Fountainhead (1943) or Atlas Shrugged (1957), the novels she is best known for, her philosophy had passed me by.

Yesterday, to help shed light on the subject, I bought the Kindle edition of ‘Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand’ by Leonard Peikoff, which I will do my best to read before Sunday, but it doesn’t strike me as a page turner.

Happily, one of the other speakers is Steven Warden, an associate of the Ayn Rand Centre UK and a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, so he will no doubt make up for my ignorance.

The third speaker is Tam Laird, leader of the Scottish Libertarian Party, a former soldier and ‘one of the foremost libertarian voices in the UK’, so I’m looking forward to what should be a lively discussion.

The event will take place at Old College which was originally called New College when it was built in the late 18th to early 19th century.

If the sun comes out (rain is forecast) I’ll take some pictures and post them here.

Comments

[Rose2]

If it's nicotine that frightens them think of the many edible plants in the Solanaceae that they can tax or ban or have hysterics about.
Ignorance is not bliss and even VicHealth knew that early on when they were trying to ban smoking or any use of nicotine of food in Australia even if it was naturally there like a tomato.

FINAL ASSESSMENT REPORT 2004
"Many commonly and widely consumed vegetables of the nightshade family (Solanaceae)
such as potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and capsicums naturally contain low levels of nicotine.
Nicotine has also been detected in cauliflower and tea – two non-solanaceous plants.
Recently there have been a number of attempts overseas to deliver nicotine medications
presented as food, such as in bottled water or in lollipops.

A concern expressed by health authorities is that the addition of tobacco or nicotine in food
may promote or legitimise the smoking of tobacco or the use of smokeless tobacco products.
VicHealth proposed a modified Option 2 – Allow the use of Nicotiana species in all foods but restrict the level of nicotine to the level demonstrated to be safe and not to be therapeutic or
psychoactive." ?

"The option was raised to prevent foods such as the nightshades, known to naturally contain low levels of nicotine, from being banned."
https://web.archive.org/web/20091229020813/http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/P278_Nicotine_FAR_Final.pdf

I would have thought it was common knowledge