Ayn Rand predicted in the 1960s everything happening now.
Campus extremists. Environmental policies advocating human poverty. Race as a criterion for everything. Hatred of success.
This isn't a description of 2025. It's what she warned about 60 years ago. 🧵
Campus extremists. Environmental policies advocating human poverty. Race as a criterion for everything. Hatred of success.
This isn't a description of 2025. It's what she warned about 60 years ago. 🧵
In The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971), Rand collected essays from the 1960s describing a disturbing trend:
Students solving political disputes through brute force instead of logic, reason, and persuasion.
Sound familiar?
Students solving political disputes through brute force instead of logic, reason, and persuasion.
Sound familiar?
Rand saw students demanding and disrupting college activities until their demands were met.
Today's campus environment mirrors exactly what she described almost 60 years ago.
The playbook hasn't changed. Only the scale.
Today's campus environment mirrors exactly what she described almost 60 years ago.
The playbook hasn't changed. Only the scale.
At the time, she noted the student movement was unpopular—but they weren't there for immediate victory.
They were there to test limits.
As she put it: "The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow."
They were there to test limits.
As she put it: "The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow."
"[Uncontested absurdities] come to be accepted by degrees, by precedent, by implication, by erosion, by default, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other—until they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology."
Rand's key insight: While everyone worried about the results of campus chaos, few addressed the root cause.
"Every possible question was raised and considered, except: What are the students taught to think?"
That's still the question no one wants to answer.
"Every possible question was raised and considered, except: What are the students taught to think?"
That's still the question no one wants to answer.
What students are taught to think matters immensely.
When you teach people that:
→ Success is evil
→ Human prosperity is environmental destruction
→ Race determines everything
→ Force trumps reason
You get exactly what we have now.
When you teach people that:
→ Success is evil
→ Human prosperity is environmental destruction
→ Race determines everything
→ Force trumps reason
You get exactly what we have now.
Rand's warning: "When brute force is on the march, compromise is the red carpet."
She called for arming ourselves with reason and morality—not physical fights.
Don't shy away from calling out authoritarian ideologies like socialism or fascism.
She called for arming ourselves with reason and morality—not physical fights.
Don't shy away from calling out authoritarian ideologies like socialism or fascism.
Rand was right: ideas move history — and students are often the first battleground.
If you want to be the one leading the defense of liberty on your campus — not just reacting to the chaos — the Local Coordinator Program is for you.
Join a global network of students from over 100 countries learning to challenge collectivism with clarity, courage, and action.
👉 Become a Local Coordinator: join.studentsforliberty.org
If you want to be the one leading the defense of liberty on your campus — not just reacting to the chaos — the Local Coordinator Program is for you.
Join a global network of students from over 100 countries learning to challenge collectivism with clarity, courage, and action.
👉 Become a Local Coordinator: join.studentsforliberty.org
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