Editor's Desk, by Robert James Bidinotto
by Robert James BidinottoHigh Profile.
From the beginning of my editorship, that is the status that I’ve sought for The New Individualist. To be truly influential as a magazine of ideas, you can’t “preach to the choir,” addressing only those who already agree with you. You must strive instead to give your efforts a “high profile”—to bring them to the attention of intellectuals, media outlets, and your target audience.
That’s why each month we distribute hundreds (occasionally, thousands) of complimentary copies of TNI to influential thinkers, leaders of public-advocacy groups, and people in the print and broadcast media. These efforts have brought TNI a lot of publicity. But what is more important, they’ve helped us spread the principles of rational individualism to a much wider audience than you might imagine for a limited-circulation publication.
That’s also why we regularly profile and interview significant writers, artists, and thinkers. This serves a dual purpose: It introduces you, the reader, to fascinating people and their ideas, while it also introduces them to the provocative principles that govern this magazine. This intellectual cross-pollination is one of the most fruitful ways I know to spread our ideas—as the ever-growing reader responses to TNI demonstrate.
A stellar example is Robert L. Jones’s interview in this issue with best-selling author and talk-show host Larry Elder. I have no doubt that this interview will bring TNI to the attention of Elder’s vast audience. And his fans will also enjoy Robert’s enthusiastic review of 88 Minutes, a recent film thriller starring Al Pacino.
Alicia Colon is a feisty columnist with theNew York Sun, and in her first article for TNI, she recounts the vicious assaults on her, by Islamists and their ideological blood brothers in New York media and political circles, after she denounced plans for a publicly funded school with a militant Islamic agenda.
Another professional writer (and photographer) making his debut in TNIis Fred Minnick. Fred pitched me an irresistible story: the tale of Larry Barnes, a California real-estate entrepreneur who is undoubtedly the only black American cowboy living in France. Really. Talk about your individualist mavericks!
As for our regulars: In his “Private I” column,senior editor Roger Donway explores the promise and pitfalls of a fascinating new trend: the emerging interest by people on the political left, even in Europe, in market-based economics. Meanwhile, our art critic, Michael Newberry, features in his “Artist’s I” column the vibrant work of painter William Wray.
On the book front, contributing writer Bradley Doucet continues his monthly march through books about “the seven deadly sins” with a review of Robert Thurman’s Anger, while William Thomas surveys a new anthology of diverse essays, Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” compiled and edited by Edward W. Younkins.
Your Editor offers reviews of two gripping new thrillers: Nothing to Lose by Lee Child (whom I interviewed in July/August 2007) and The Last Patriot by Brad Thor. I also devote my monthly “Soliloquy” to the task of dissecting a rant that was posted by a radical environmentalist on my blog. Call it revenge.
I’ll close with two big “thank-you’s.” The first is to Roger Donway, who stepped into the editorial breach this month when I injured my arm and required surgery. Roger, who used to edit Navigator, this magazine’s predecessor, has saved my butt by putting this issue to bed while I recuperate. The other thank-you goes to Kira Newman, TNI’s editorial intern this summer, who filled in by providing invaluable copyediting, proofreading, and editorial assistance to Roger and me.
You would not be reading this issue if it weren’t for Roger and Kira. Which is why I’m proud to give them a high profile.