On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Wall Street Week,” Larry Summers, a Harvard professor and president emeritus and former Harvard president, said America’s enemies are trying to “ensure that our young future elites are not leading our nation.” “I’m sure he receives great encouragement from the spectacle he shows to so many people in his position.” With the enthusiastic response typical of college campuses and even university leadership. ”
“This is very depressing and worrying to me,” Summers said. “As I’ve said before on your show, David, given what’s going on in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc., the U.S. I think we’re in perhaps the most dangerous geopolitical moment in two generations, and whoever’s sitting in one of these countries is being made up of by future young elites on many major university campuses. It seems to me that you should be even more encouraged by the spectacle and the enthusiastic response it represents.
He added: “I think this is a failure of a fundamental part of education, which is to instill in people the ability to think seriously about serious moral issues.” Some of those protesting are idealists. But some of it is driven by outside agitation and outside funding. And I live by the theory of civil disobedience and the ideal of people who are ready to accept punishment for the cause. But when you look at things like the Columbia University legal review, which calls for the cancellation of this year’s exams and suspension of grading because of what happened on that campus. I think it represents a certain kind of decadence, and I’m very concerned about the future of our university, and therefore our country. I hope we can find a way to get things back on track. but.”
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