The Prometheus Institute is a libertarian public policy think tank based in Orange County, California.
The Five Goals of Prometheus
1) To discover practical public policy solutions to solve pressing national issues and reduce the burden of government on the people
2) To advance the fundamental American principles of liberty, open markets, free choice, the rule of law and peace, not as abstract idealism, but as the foundation of effective public policy and as universal values that inspire the human experience and the pursuit of happiness
3) To help create public demand for these policy ideas by engaging new audiences, educating and empowering the people with the knowledge and inspiration to create change in their own lives
4) To pioneer the creative marketing of ideas, with innovative new methods of outreach including stylish branding, media advertisements, and diverse interdisciplinary publications in styles from satire to philosophy
5) To help strengthen American democracy by engaging the broader public in political issues, especially the youth; creating a forum of ideas and debate through which the American public can be better informed on important issues; and to raise the national discussion to focus on ideas, not political gossip, tedious statistics, intolerant ideology or partisan warfare
Prometheus is an ancient Greek god, famous for using trickery to steal fire from Zeus and give it to the people of the world for their own use, and for giving man knowledge of arts such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine and science. The name Prometheus literally means "forethought", and Prometheus is also noted for his foreknowledge of Zeus's eventual downfall and overthrow.
Because ideas are literally the "fire" to create effective change in modern society, the Prometheus Institute takes ideas from the elites in academia and government, and delivers these ideas to the people for their own use.
Today, the adjective "promethean" is defined as "daring and skillfully inventive," "inspiring" or "boldly creative" - perfect characterizations of the Prometheus Institute.
What is libertarian?
Libertarian generally refers to policies that support the free market, social freedom and limited government. Libertarians are sometimes also called "classical liberals", "European liberals", or in America, "socially liberal and fiscally conservative." David Boaz, a libertarian commentator, calls them "small-government, leave-me-alone voters who don't like big-spending Democrats or religious-right Republicans."
Voters with libertarian views or leanings comprise an estimated 15-20% of the American voting population. They are the largest and fastest growing independent voting bloc, and generally are comprised of educated yet relatively younger voters. These voters usually register as independent, but they have been occasionally courted by politicians from both parties.
Moderate libertarian views have strong support from American voters, but strangely, few moderate libertarian organizations exist, outside of the Cato Institute and a few others; many other prominent libertarians hold radical, crypto-anarchic viewpoints. By contrast, the Prometheus Institute is concerned only with practical, effective reform for implementation in American public policy. Radical, unworkable abstract ideas are of no value in helping to forward public policy to benefit the true legal freedoms of the people.
The Prometheus Institute is a nonprofit charity organized under IRS code 501(c)(3) to help reduce the burden of government on the people; it encourages all practical and intelligent views based on the general libertarian principles of limited government, free markets, and the enduring belief in the value of human freedom.
What is a think tank?
Think tanks are nonpartisan organizations that develop and promote new ideas, insights and research in order to influence federal legislation, national public policy, and other aspects of the law.
Think tanks have been enormously influential in shaping and leading political debate, legislative activity and public opinion in the last half-century. Recently, various pro-market think tanks have helped to guide the political consensus away from socialism and central planning by devising effective policies promoting limited government, market competition and deregulation. Think tanks of all ideologies have developed and continue to produce ideas to influence politics in America and the world; their insights and solutions help chart the course of political and social progress.
Yet to profoundly influence the process of law in a 21st century democracy is hardly a simple process. Public preferences, including myriad groups, factions, lobbyists, influential communities, opinion polls and other political factors combine to influence any given decision by legislators and judges. Many current think tanks do little to attract widespread public interest with nuanced quantitative reasoning and outreach concentrated on the political elite. Many of scholars' prolix, esoteric and vapid works, while regularly brilliant, are never read by the policymakers and intellectuals they are supposed to influence, let alone the American political mainstream. Today, scholars and other intelligent advocates sell far fewer books and attract much less public interest than partisan mud-slingers who peddle nescience in a charismatic package. Lacking intelligent ideas capable of attracting public support, American policy has unfortunately grown more polarized and irrational.
What distinguishes PI from other think tanks?
Unique among all think tanks, the Prometheus Institute also advocates its ideas directly to the people of the United States and the world, competitively and creatively marketing publications, research and outreach.
History teaches that effective political progress depends fundamentally on public support for the ideas that the new public policies seek to forward, not simply helpful quantitative data in a policy study, the egoistic passions of a single political faction, or a strategic lobbying effort. Recognizing this, the Institute reaches out beyond the elite, in order to bridge the current chasm between intelligent, well-researched political argument and effective political advocacy. The Institute defends its ideas with both quantitative data as well as normative arguments and insights; democratic policy is driven by values and national direction, not merely by numbers and statistics.
Whether popular, controversial, creative, aesthetic or scholarly, the Institute's work is crafted to gain attention, raise awareness, and drive the political debate. The Institute's work fronts the pages of the most popular news sites on the web, where its ideas inspire discussion among those audiences who elude other think tanks, newspapers and even cable news. The Institute publishes diverse viewpoints, even those contrary to its editorial position, and also features debates on important issues among the Institute's staff and writers. The Institute advocates ideas through several media other think tanks have ignored, including satire, parody, and even print and clothing design. The Institute even discusses nonpolitical subjects, to help attract audiences who may initially reject certain political positions or labels alone.
The Institute sees no reason for the unreasonable delay in implementing quality solutions to today's political and social problems. The Institute believes good ideas should be immediately democratized, not idly shelved in the dusty archives of academia, hoping vainly for reactionary septuagenarians to finally give their imprimatur to them in some subsequent decade.
