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The Emerson Institute for Freedom and Culture
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Troy Camplin
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May 23, 2008 07:26 PDT
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Troy
Camplin, Ph.D. announces the creation of The Emerson Institute for Freedom and
Culture, Inc., a free market think tank whose primary mission will be to
promote cultural and societal change through the arts and humanities. While
other free market think tanks seek to change the minds of elected officials,
EIFC will seek to influence the culture at large by the promotion of
pro-liberty , pro-values, meaningful works in the arts and humanities. If
liberty is to survive, it must have support from the people and the culture. If
we have a culture which promotes freedom, truth, beauty, meaning, value, and
virtue, we will have people who will support freedom, truth, beauty, meaning,
value, and virtue in their lives as a whole, including in their politics. We believe
the best way to rejuvenate the culture is through a form of natural classicism,
which recognizes that the world is complex, self-organizing, creative, and
free. Further, we will seek to educate the public about the
importance
of the arts and humanities to their lives and to the culture at large. Any real
and lasting societal change must start in the culture – in the arts and
humanities. If the people are to believe in freedom, truth, beauty, meaning,
value, and virtue, then our arts and humanities must create or reconstruct
freedom, truth, beauty, meaning, value and virtue in works which address
themselves to the average person and not just to the specialist. In other
words, we must support works that provide a counterpoint to those postmodern
works which promote a overly simple, irrational, unbeautiful, anti-value,
anti-meaning worldview that undermines rather than reinforces the creative
freedom inherent in the world. Through journals and newsletters, articles and
books, scholarly panels, media appearances, and special projects, EIFC will
strive to reflect the reality of the world as a complex, creative, beautiful,
value-laden, meaningful and, thus, conducive to freedom. As we are a
new
organization, we will be seeking seed money to get operations underway. We are
also seeking creative and scholarly submissions relating to the above stated
topics. The Emerson Institute can be contacted by e-mail at emerso-@aol.com
Below
please find the MIssion Statement and Submission Guidelines:
The
Emerson Institute for Freedom and Culture
Mission
Statement
The
Emerson Institute for Freedom and Culture is working to change the culture by
promoting progressive natural classicism in the arts and humanities.
Censors
of every ideology know the power of the arts and humanities. Culture emerges
from the people, who are influenced by the culture. Politicians follow the
people; the laws they pass are shaped by their perception of what the people
want. Thus, if any long-term support for free markets and personal liberty is
to occur, the changes must be made in the culture rather than with the
politicians. If we have a culture which promotes freedom, truth, beauty,
meaning, value, and virtue, we will have people who will support freedom,
truth, beauty, meaning, value, and virtue in their lives as a whole, including
in their politics. The top will be changed by changes at the bottom.
Cultures,
economies, and free societies are all complex systems. Complex systems have
bottom-up self-organization, evolve, are polycentric hierarchies, and involve
nonlinear feedback loops. Such systems are generative of growth, freedom,
value, meaning, and virtue. Thus, we seek to help create this kind of natural
culture, one that is a complex, nonlinear, self-organizing, flexible hierarchy
that will allow for greater freedom and creative innovation, limit power, and
reduce coercion in favor of mutually beneficial exchange and assent. We also
seek to oppose all attempts to create a simple, linear, coercive, rigid,
egalitarian culture that makes people weak, passive, irresponsible, lacking in
self-control, easily led, incapable of independent thought, nihilistic, and
prone to engage in crime and self-destructive behavior – all of which makes a
society conducive to the acceptance of totalitarianism.
Any real
and lasting societal change must start in the culture – in the arts and
humanities. If the people are to believe in freedom, truth, beauty, meaning,
value, and virtue, then our arts and humanities must create or reconstruct
freedom, truth, beauty, meaning, value and virtue in works which address
themselves to the average person and not just to the specialist. In other
words, we must support works that provide a counterpoint to those postmodern
works which promote a simplistic, irrational, unbeautiful, nihilistic worldview
that undermines rather than reinforces the creative freedom inherent in the
world. Through journals and newsletters, articles and books, scholarly panels,
media appearances, and special projects, EIFC strives to reflect the reality of
the world as a self-organizing, nonlinear, creative, hierarchical, complex,
emergentist system conducive to freedom.
SUBMISSION
GUIDELINES
Fiction,
poetry, plays, essays, and articles should be in Times New Roman 12 pt. font
and submitted as an attachment in Word or Text format. Additional
genre–specific guidelines, including guidelines for images and audio files can
be found below. Thos wishing to submit works to EIFC should also consult our
Mission Statement.
Fiction
We
accept short-shorts, short stories, and long stories.
Poetry
We are
looking for superior poetry of any length. We are looking for poetry written by
the kinds of poets described by Theseus in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”:
The
poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth
glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as
imagination bodies forth
The
forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns
them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local
habitation and a name.
Plays
Standard
play format. Verse plays are encouraged.
Music
Music
should be sent as either mp3 or wave files. Along with the audio file,
composers should submit the sheet music, a list of the instruments used, and
the names of the musicians. A description of the piece, including your theory
of the music composed, is also suggested. If you are submitting a song, you
should also include lyrics. Satires and spoofs should include the name of the
son and band being satirized.
Visual
Arts
Images
should be sent as JPG attachments. A description of the piece, including your
theory behind the composition of the piece, is also suggested.
Essays
and Articles
Articles
and essays on any topic relating to freedom, culture, society, the arts, or any
of the theories or related theories listed in the Mission Statement are
welcome. Essays are less formal than articles and typically do not include a
bibliography. Authors should strive to make their essays or articles accessible
to the intelligent layperson. Interdisciplinary content and experimental structures
are acceptable, the former being in fact strongly encouraged.
We also accept relevant book reviews.
Troy
Camplin, President
The
Emerson Institute for Freedom and Culture
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