The New Founders America Needs
Common Sense | Bari Weiss
FAIR Advisor Bari Weiss delivers a powerful message to the first students at University of Austin. She explains that the “zealous and profoundly illiberal ideology” of the soft revolution taking place is “the biggest untold story in America right now. It is one that is happening right under our noses and it promises to reshape the country...” She calls on the first students of UATX to return to “the virtues and values that have made America and the West the best, freest, most enlightened, most tolerant of minorities, most open to new ideas, most innovative places in the history of the world” and asks them, “a new generation of founders…[to] lead us out by looking to those same bedrock principles.” As for their age, Weiss reminds them (and us): “Don’t forget: More than a dozen of the actual founders [of America] were 18th century millennials… So don’t tell me that small groups of young people cannot transform the world when they made ours.”
It’s worth a full read or listen. Here are a few key quotes:
“A zealous and profoundly illiberal ideology… has infiltrated our largest companies, our media, our universities, our medical schools, our law schools, our hospitals, our local governments, our elementary schools. Our friendships. Our families. Our language… If you are sitting in this room you know this better than most Americans because you are living it. You have all sat in classrooms, posted on social media, and applied to college and felt the pressure at each stage to promote an ideology you disagree with…”
“What has become obvious to anyone paying attention is that we are living through a kind of revolution… [It] is a revolution of culture. A revolution of ideas… [Some] have tried to deny its existence because they are scared of its implications… [some for] craven reasons: Because to see it would be to give up too much status. Too much prestige. To really see it… might mean giving up on Yale. Or Harvard.”
“This soft, cultural revolution is, I believe, the biggest untold story in America right now. It is one that is happening right under our noses and it promises to reshape the country. It already has…”
“What we call “cancel culture” is really the justice system of this revolution. And the goal of the cancellations is not merely to punish the person being canceled. The goal is to send a message to everyone else: Step out of line and you are next…”
“So what are we to do?… We have to get more fundamental, more foundational. We have to get beyond the tired and rotted out ideas about left and right and ask: What are the virtues and values that have made America and the West the best, freest, most enlightened, most tolerant of minorities, most open to new ideas, most innovative places in the history of the world?…”
“I believe that after the un-American revolution we are still living through, a new generation of founders will lead us out by looking to those same bedrock principles. And I believe that you in this room can and should be among those founders.”
Weiss outlines 10 calls to action, including a call to “to reject the politics of resentment and to recognize our privilege,” defend freedom of speech, reject moral relativism, nihilism and political litmus tests, and to build new things.
