Walsh on the Judeo-Christian Tradition
I was there in 1989. I was there!
As part of the continuing Lost Lecture series, the Salem Center for Policy now presents George Walsh’s “The Judeo-Christian Tradition,” a six-hour course on Judaism and Christianity. With his characteristic erudition and humor, Walsh covers the history and ideas of these two uber-influential religions.
How did the most ascendant religions of all time spring out of the faith of a weak people on the periphery of the civilized world? What do the two religions still have in common? How – and when – did they diverge? Whatever your views, Walsh knows much that you do not.
I love all of Walsh’s work, but these lectures mean the most to me because I was there. The year was 1989. I had just graduated from Granada Hills High School. As a young Ayn Rand fan, I was thrilled to win a scholarship to George Reisman’s two-week Jefferson School of Philosophy, Economics, and Psychology at UC San Diego. Yet the actual experience turned out to be… uneven. More than a little cultish. The infamous David Kelley purge was the talk of the town. Attendees’ long-time friendships were breaking up before my eyes. Self-styled models of “rationality” were acting like religious fanatics.
Despite all this ugliness, listening to Walsh filled me with awe. He seemed to know everything about everything. And when I listen to him 35 years later, he still does!
If you pay close attention, you’ll eventually hear my 18-year-old self in the Q&A. At the end of lecture three, if I’m not mistaken. I hope you enjoy this journey back to 1989, the best year of the 20th century.
Lecture 1: Judaism and Its World Outlook
Lecture 2: Christianity and Its World Outlook
Lecture 3: The Ethical, Political, and Economic Teaching of the Judeo-Christian Tradition
Lecture 4: The Sexual Ethics of the Judeo-Christian Tradition
P.S. Here’s some bonus lore from the conference. Back in those days, TJS was the official seminar partner of the Ayn Rand Institute. Economist George Reisman ran the show. Toward the end of the conference, Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand’s “legal and intellectual heir,” gave a talk where he forever excommunicated David Kelley from the Objectivist movement. At the end of Peikoff’s talk, Reisman ran up to the stage, took the mic, and declared (quoting from memory), “I agree with Leonard 100%. It would be far better if Ayn Rand’s ideas remained limited to the people in this room, but stayed pure, than if they swept the entire world, but were diluted to the slightest extent.” Thunderous applause followed.
That evening, George Walsh hung around to chat with me and other fans. He told us that he, too, had just been purged by Peikoff, and relayed the following conversation. Again, I quote from memory.
Walsh: I guess I’m not an Objectivist anymore, Leonard.
Peikoff: What do you mean?
Walsh: You said that if David Kelley’s status is still an open question for you, you’re no longer an Objectivist.
Peikoff: We can still talk, George. It’s open for you.
Walsh: Either it’s closed for me, or it’s open for everyone.
P.P.S. Five years later, Reisman and his wife Edith Packer were purged too.
How hilarious. Objectivists purport to believe that knowledge is objective, meaning not simply a matter of opinion. But the way you obtain any sort of empirical knowledge is by questioning EVERYTHING. No scientist should be "purged" and no investigation or subject off limits. Sadly, everything Rand said or wrote is contrary to this fundamental principle. She really should have spent some time on Karl Popper.
I had a teenage infatuation with Ayn Randism, but reading about the purges in that movement disillusioned me. I can't abide people telling me who I'm allowed to talk with or which books I'm allowed to read. I see the same sort of thing going on in lots of other subcultures I have some interest in, and feel sad when people I otherwise respect start demanding that others excommunicate other people I also have some respect for.