Irakli Iagorashvili

 Dear Freedom-Loving Individuals,

My name is Irakli Iagorashvili. I am a 21 years political science major from Georgia (the country). I would like to start my personal story from the point when I embraced classical liberalism and especially the Father of its John Locke. In Georgian literature it was said that a human being is born twice: the first birth is purely biological, while the second one is connected to the state when one finds out why he is born and what is the aim of his life. That happened in my life when I was in high school. John Locke challenged me at that time, and I set a goal to become freer and to make the environment around me freer as well. I realized that the one and only life I have would be nothing without freedom or without the process of fighting for freedom. Since then half of my activities, my daily life, my career is strongly connected to the promotion of individual liberty, individual rights, economic freedom, and rational self-oriented life.

When I became a student my abilities in promoting freedom have been enhanced. I started working with different organizations and foundations which were advancing the same ideas I believed in. Among those organizations, there were the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, New Economic School of Georgia, which is one of the leading organizations in Georgia promoting individual and economic freedom, and European Students for Liberty. At that time, I was actively involved in their activities, and sometimes personally I was the organizer of interesting freedom-promoting events as well.

During one of the events in Tbilisi Georgia, I heard the name of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism. I remember I skipped that fact. Thanks to the Facebook algorithm, some of Ayn Rand’s interviews popped up on my wall and they catched my attention. At that time, I was studying in the USA for a semester (won the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD) Scholarship), so I had more abilities to buy the books of her and to discuss some of her ideas with Americans who had more information about Objectivism than people back home. In that period of time I found that I was agreeing with Rand in fundamental principles. Since then I started studying objectivism deeply and after coming back home also started promoting it.

I took part in John Galt School and won the essay contest organized by that school. The program is organized in different countries by Ayn Rand Center Europe and partner organizations, funded by the Prometheus Foundation. John Galt School really helped me to unite what I already knew and what I needed more to know for the future. I also attended Ayn Rand Conference Europe in 2019 by the Ayn Rand Institute, which helped to answer a lot of questions I had on objectivism or about the ongoing issues in the world. It also helped me to meet Objectivists from Europe and to make friends with them.

As for now, I am studying political science at the University of Glasgow, but still promoting Objectivism in Georgia. As the whole world moved online, I perfectly used that opportunity and started different activities on my page “ობიექტივიზმი/Objectivism”. My aim, for now, is not to help people to deeply understand Ayn Rand’s philosophy, but to show them that a girl who escaped from Soviet Russia to the USA created a philosophic system which changed the lives of thousands and that they also can change something for better in their lives. I try to make Georgian audience interested in Rand’s ideas and start reading her best fiction and non-fictions. I mostly translate articles, publishing Rand’s quotes and videos, also inviting different people in my online show, talking on different parts of Ayn Rand’s philosophy in Georgian. In the early future, I am going to establish Ayn Rand Center Georgia, which will have a bigger variety of activities. I am sure that Project Arizona will be the step forward for me to establish a very successful organization.

Project Arizona enables liberty-loving individuals to do an internship with different American organization – when I heard that, I immediately started thinking that this program would allow me to gain a great deal of experience on how different similar types of organizations operate in America, what problems they face, and how they solve various obstacles in their day-to-day operations. Such experience will assist me to do my best in advancing Objectivism back home. This program will also help me to find new connections, which will be really useful for my future development and career. I am not the selected participant of the Program yet, but it already doubled the motivation I have for my nearest future. I am sure this motivation will remain with me throughout the final stage of Project Arizona and it will help me to do my best.

Dear reader, I hope you liked my personal story and my motivation for this program. Your assistance can have a crucial role for my future development.

Thank you for reading!

Irakli Iagorashvili