Gad Saad Praises Ayn Rand For Warning of the Dangers of US Universities
Can We Create a New Renaissance?
Gad Saad, author of The Parasitic Mind, has slammed Western universities for their promotion of toxic ideologies like DEI, ESG, and sadly even antisemitism. Sadly, these ideas have not merely been confined to universities, but have slowly begun to make their way into corporations and other organizations in the United States.
US universities have slowly begun to destroy the fabric of American society by pushing back against traditional values like capitalism and individualism. This trend has been going on for decades. Is it already too late to repair all of this damage?
Gad Saad has mentioned how he believes universities in the United States are not beyond repair. He has also referenced some ideas from Ayn Rand in the 1960s when she previously mentioned how some universities may be able to reclaim their previous prestige.
At one point in time, US universities were truly prestigious entities that helped create a prosperous and free-thinking society and economy. The damage that US universities have created is deep, impacting an entire generation, but we also have a strong benchmark of success from the past to draw upon. However, in the absence of any massive reforms, US universities and society may become unrecognizable in the coming decades.
Gad Saad Praises Ayn Rand
Gad Saad has been one of the most influential thought leaders within academia, as he has exposed some of the corruption caused by DEI and other toxic practices that have become common in universities. Like many libertarian-minded people, Gad Saad has also been strongly influenced by the legendary writer Ayn Rand, who has praised some of the previous intellectual values that made the United States so successful.
Gad Saad recently shared an Ayn Rand interview from the 1960s, in which she correctly predicted some of the issues that universities would create in the future.
Although these insights came from the 1960s, they are still eerily similar to some of the issues that universities still face today. Moreover, it is also clear that Ayn Rand accurately predicted how some of these toxic university practices would have nasty spillover effects on the economy. Ayn Rand has objectively shown how universities have abandoned their former prestige and destroyed the country’s traditional values.
The US is Being Destroyed by Universities
How did the United States so easily surrender its intellectual prowess?
At the beginning of this interview, Ayn Rand discussed how the poor philosophy of universities was responsible for destroying the country.
“ I feel that this country is being destroyed by its philosophy, specifically by its universities. The most dangerous thing in this country today is the universities because they are teaching the kind of ideas that would necessarily have to lead to the destruction of this country. I think that the American people are too good for that type of program.”
Ayn Rand also mentioned that this destructive environment was causing many people to pivot away from these ideals, but that there was still no intellectual leadership from this group. In the present moment, there are many parallels to these ideas that Ayn Rand shared decades ago. While some individuals from the right are beginning to rise against DEI and other destructive ideas, it is apparent that they moved too late and still need to do much more work. Many states started pushing back against DEI in 2024, which could be a positive trend that could help reverse some of the damage caused by US universities.
Academic standards in US institutions have been plummeting, and these trends have also carried over to other organizations. Massive corporations with DEI departments can conveniently recruit students from so-called elite schools, as these students have been exposed to these topics throughout their education. Meanwhile, the universities have been concealing this decline by lowering academic standards to encourage more students to graduate with favorable grades.
Ayn Rand noted that there was a time when US universities previously deserved their prestige and fought to promote American ideals. She discussed her ideal vision for what US universities must do to restore the intellectual ideals that made America successful in the past.
“ I mean a Harvard that would be preaching American ideals. More specifically, reason, individualism, and capitalism. Even institutions of the intellectual prestige, which they don’t deserve today, but they deserved it at one time. Even institutions of that magnitude were preaching the proper ideas, that is the ideas on which America originated.”
Universities have abandoned some of the core values such as individualism and capitalism, and replaced these ideas with other pursuits like collectivism and altruism. This is a very dangerous formula for Ivy League graduates who may enter the workforce with an unfavorable view of capitalism and a favorable view of toxic concepts like ESG and DEI. Universities like Wharton have already begun offering degrees focusing on ESG. Other universities like Yale have pushed back against fossil fuel investments, showing how disconnected they are from the domestic economy and the reality of our global energy needs. Students have lost sight of these basic facts because they are absorbed in fulfilling their fictitious altruistic duties.
Ayn Rand’s Writing Portrays Key US Issues
The United States’ success was largely built on favorable views of capitalism and individualism. Consequently, toxic practices like collectivism can harm US society if these ideas continue to run unchecked. Ayn Rand exposed these issues in many of her books.
In Ayn Rand’s book Anthem, she explains a scenario in which individual progress and creativity are squashed by bureaucrats and councils who push back against individuals because they want citizens to be subservient in their labor. A character in this story who constructs a lightbulb is scorned for disrupting the work of the Department of Candles.
Most importantly, her book called The Virtue of Selfishness pushes back against some of the toxic ideas such as collectivism and altruism, which hinder the progress that capitalism has delivered to the United States. Universities have begun pushing back against these ideals, scorning capitalism and praising altruism. We do not need to limit fossil fuel consumption for the greater good, and there is a great honor in being a capitalist in the United States, either as an entrepreneur or corporate employee. The people who build these corporations are heroes, much like the characters in many of Ayn Rand’s books.
Ayn Rand also discussed common signs of declines in societies, many of which we are seeing in the United States as corrupt politicians are rewarded and productive people punished. These words bear an eerie resemblance to the two-tiered justice system, which forces productive citizens to be subservient to the state.
Innovation can’t thrive in an environment like this. The greatest enemy of the United States now may be the rising levels of bureaucracy, which fights back against innovators who have helped shape the United States into a prosperous country.
A New Renaissance
Are US universities still salvageable?
Gad Saad and Ayn Rand have accurately shown many errors that US institutions have made in the past, and have also displayed the dangers that we will face if we don’t reverse course. But this is not to say that there is no hope.
Ayn Rand spoke about the potential for an intellectual renaissance in the United States if we pivot back to some of the ideas in the past that have made us successful.
“ You could have a better renaissance than the first one. This country would come back to life. But today when all those institutions, from Harvard on down, are preaching collectivism, mysticism, and above all altruism, the self-sacrifice of yourself, the giving up, the resignation.. all the disgusting kinds of ideas that the whole world has been nurturing for decades. When they do this, this country can survive.”
In this case, one of the first and most logical steps is to get rid of DEI programs and to examine the curriculum of any other ideology that promotes faulty altruism, and incorrectly condemns individualism and true intellectualism. At one point, Ivy League universities deserved their prestige status, and they still have the power to reclaim this former glory. Both Ayn Rand and Gad Saad have expressed hope in this manner.
Another positive step would be to focus on education in middle schools and high schools to ensure that these toxic ideas do not spread and create a weak foundation for students before they enter universities. Every high school student in the country should be reading literature by prolific writers like Ayn Rand, who celebrate some of the accomplishments of innovative, individualistic, and capitalist-minded individuals.
Best Ever Interview of Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand discussed how the poor philosophy of universities was responsible for destroying the country.
“ I feel that this country is being destroyed by its philosophy, specifically by its universities. The most dangerous thing in this country today is the universities because they are teaching the kind of ideas that would necessarily have to lead to the destruction of this country. I think that the American people are too good for that type of program.”
Ayn Rand also mentioned that this destructive environment was causing many people to pivot away from these ideals, but that there was still no intellectual leadership from this group. In the present moment, there are many parallels to these ideas that Ayn Rand shared decades ago. While some individuals from the right are beginning to rise against DEI and other destructive ideas, it is apparent that they moved too late and still need to do much more work. Many states started pushing back against DEI in 2024, which could be a positive trend that could help reverse some of the damage caused by US universities.
DEI is antithetical to Objectivism as conceived by Rand.