Last night, philosopher and novelist Dr. Andrew Bernstein spoke on "Global Capitalism: The Solution to World Oppression and Poverty" to a crowd of about 200 students in the Thomas Building.

Hosted by the Penn State Objectivist Club, the lecture addressed the wealth and prosperity that can come out of a free, or capitalist, society.

"Freedom is virtually unknown throughout the world -- that is tragic," Bernstein said.

"The spread of capitalism is the single greatest opportunity for peace."

He stressed concepts such as reason, individual rights, rule of law, political economic freedom and capitalism.

Bernstein also addressed those countries that had not yet seen the effects of capitalism.

"If African nations rise into political freedom, they will rise into first-world countries," he said. "Freedom is necessary to produce economic abundance."

Bernstein is an objectivist philosopher and professor of philosophy at Marist College.

He is the author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic, and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.

He is well known for supporting and following the ideas of objectivist Ayn Rand such as reason, individualism and capitalism.

Objectivist Club President David Landy said his club hosted the lecture "to propagate the ideas of Ayn Rand."

"Without capitalism, there would be no Penn State and the most prevalent cause of death would be the common cold."

Like most students, Ryan Denardis (sophomore-music composition) came to the lecture out of interest.

"I had read Ayn's novels before, and wanted to see how it would be applied to real world concepts," he said.

He found Bernstein's ideas interesting, he said.

"I enjoyed it thoroughly. He proved many good points I had agreed with."

On the other hand, Dave Emery (freshman - division of undergraduate students) did not fully agree with all of the presented ideas.

"I thought he had a lot of interesting points, but some were mildly contradictory," he said. "I think his spiel was too full of rhetoric."

Bernstein said his aim was to educate students and spread the word.

He said learning is a step toward personal freedom, and it can even be fun.

"Philosophy does not have to be boring," he said.

Bernstein advised students to pay close attention to their liberties.

"In the modern world, we're moving gradually toward statism and violating individual rights. [Students] need to realize their rights are slowly being threatened and eroded. The human mind requires freedom," he said.