M ARINA DEL REY, CA--Two deadly ideas infect most American college courses, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute: human reason is unreliable, and the individual should be subordinated to society.
"It is only your rational faculty that makes you an individual, and not a mindless, interchangeable member of the herd," said Edwin A. Locke, who is also a professor of business and management, and psychology at the University of Maryland. "The capacity to reason is an individual's most sacred possession, but reason is under constant attack by the very people entrusted to protect and nurture it--teachers."
Locke, an internationally recognized authority on human motivation, has worked in and studied the American educational system for 30 years. In an open letter he advises graduating college students on how they may have been infected by these lethal ideas in some of their courses:
( "Psychology--free will is an illusion, and your life is ruled by your unconscious feelings.
( "Economics--the needs of society supersede the rights of the individual.
( "History--nothing can be known objectively, because all interpretations are biased by one's race, gender and economic status."
Locke said that by destroying students' ability to reason, today's teachers are not only ushering in a generation of rationally crippled adults, but are also undermining the foundations of a free society.
Ayn Rand Institute senior writer Edwin A. Locke, a professor of business and management, and psychology at the University of Maryland and author of Prime Movers: The Traits of the Great Wealth Creators, is available for interviews.
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