His Holiness the Dalai Lama is joining the American Enterprise Institute in a special free online streaming video program that will celebrate happiness, free enterprise, and human flourishing.
The special presentation will premier February 20 at 9 AM and will be live streamed.
The Dalai Lama will join AEI’s Arthur Brooks, himself a dynamic and infectious speaker, to discuss the human benefits of the free enterprise system.
Free enterprise, free trade, and capitalism are forever being attacked in the media and the halls of higher education and government, but as AEI notes, simply “doubling down” on debates about tax policy and budgets is not all that supporters of free market ideals can rely on to back their position.
“We must stop considering free enterprise purely in terms of economic gain and wealth creation, and begin considering it in terms of human fulfillment,” AEI said in its announcement of the special video program.
“In working with his Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the think tank said, “AEI seeks to create an open forum among scholars, social and political leaders, doctors, and scientists to discuss the ways in which material prosperity, spiritual development, and ethical leadership can maximize human flourishing.”
“Far from a talk, we look forward to a conversation with His Holiness about how the free enterprise system can offer the best path toward happiness when predicated on ethical leadership, morality, and compassion for others,” the announcement concluded.
Arthur Brooks is a big advocate of discussing capitalism and free markets in terms of human happiness. Those who witness one of his many addresses to audiences at conservative conferences will certainly come away more enthused than ever about conservative ideals.
Brooks recently wrote a piece in The New York Times expounding on that happiness theme.
“There’s nothing new about earned success,” Brooks wrote in December. “It’s simply another way of explaining what America’s founders meant when they proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that humans’ inalienable rights include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“This moral covenant links the founders to each of us today,” he continued. “The right to define our happiness, work to attain it and support ourselves in the process – to earn our success – is our birthright. And it is our duty to pass this opportunity on to our children and grandchildren.”
Viewers of Friday’s AEI presentation with the Dalai Lama will surely be treated to more of the ideas that conservatives would be well advised to include in their own thought process as well as in how they speak of their ideas to others.
Appearing with the Dalai Lama and AEI chief Brooks will be Jonathan Haidt, New York University; Glenn Hubbard, Columbia University; Daniel S. Loeb, Third Point LLC; Diana Chapman Walsh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Richard Davidson, University of Wisconsin; Otto Scharmer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Arthur Zajonc, Mind & Life Institute.