Doug Casey On Why College Fails Young Men… And The Blueprint They Actually Need

Via InternationalMan.com,

International Man: Doug, you co-wrote The Preparation with Matt Smith and Maxim Smith.

What motivated the three of you to come together on this project, and why did you feel now was the right time to publish it?

Doug Casey: I’ve wanted to write a book like this for well over a decade. I talked Matt into co-authoring it because, frankly, I’ve become rather lazy, and writing is hard work. Matt only became interested in it, though, when Maxim, his son, turned 17. Matt didn’t want to encourage his son to wander off to a college—because colleges have turned into intellectual and social cesspools. Matt became quite interested in it, and more importantly so did Maxim, because Maxim has actually been a guinea pig for the ideas and solutions we propose in the book. For the last two years, Maxim has been putting the theory in the book into practice, and all of us are absolutely thrilled with the results from every angle.

Now is the right time for a book like this, because the nature of college has changed radically. It was once an institution that gave young men a chance to perfect their critical thinking skills and expand their knowledge of the world. Now it’s just an expensive extension of adolescence—a halfway house to lounge around, take a few classes, and party, while being indoctrinated with insane ideas from thoroughly corrupt professors. The nature of college has degraded over the last hundred years, and its downhill descent has accelerated in recent years.

I used to say—after I graduated in 1968—that I considered college a misallocation of four years of time and a bunch of money. Even though in those days it was still reasonably worthwhile, fairly exclusive, and relatively cheap. Now, paradoxically, it has little value, most everyone goes, but it’s brutally expensive. As time went on, I increasingly saw it as a waste of time. Now I see college as destructive, an active detriment.

International Man: What do you see as the central purpose of this book, and why do you believe it is especially important for young men today?

Doug Casey: This is the book I wish I’d had when I was in high school, contemplating college. I didn’t have any guidance, but went off to college because it was what most people from my background did. College was seen as the key to success and higher income. But if someone had shown me what I could have done with those four years—if I’d had this book– I would’ve been way better off in every way.

Today, young men are being actively battered by destructive forces in society, like the tranny, bi, and incel movements. Large numbers of young men find that they’re not qualified for anything after they graduate. Not only are they unqualified, but they’ve also acquired negative moral and social values. Many wind up living in their parents’ basement, watching porn and playing video games all day.

This book is a guide to a total education. College grads not only dissipate tens of thousands a year of their parents’ capital, but burden themselves with a non-dismissible albatross of debt as well. For what? An experience that may launch you into the world—kind of—but is likely to hurt you morally, financially, and even intellectually.

This book shows young men how to gain all the academic knowledge that they theoretically would if they went to college, plus a huge number of real-life skills. And practical experience that most men never get in a lifetime. A young man who follows The Preparation will be head and shoulders above anybody who’s spent four years in college in every area.

Take academics. When you go to college today—assuming you graduate—you generally get either a BA, Bachelor of Arts, or a BS, Bachelor of Science. A BA means you’ve taken some courses in history and English, but are also burdened with lots of time-wasters like sociology, psychology, and gender studies. BA graduates are always light on the sciences.

BS students are generally fewer but more serious. They may learn about biology, physics, chemistry, or astronomy in some depth, but they’re generally light on the humanities.

The Preparation ensures that you will have a thorough grounding in both the humanities and the sciences. And more than that, four quarters are devoted to MBA courses, to learn things you need to run a business: accounting, the legal system, marketing, sales, and administration. And the principles of economics and investing.

International Man: Can you walk us through what The Preparation entails—what kind of guidance, lessons, or frameworks does it provide, and how is it structured to set readers up for long-term success?

Doug Casey: We’ve divided the four years of college into 16 quarters, called cycles. Each cycle centers around a practical, real-world experience. For instance, learning to be an emergency medical technician (EMT). The knowledge and practical skills acquired stay with you for the rest of your life, and you can immediately get a job doing that. Maxim parlayed his EMT qualifications into working as a medic for a forest firefighting team, where he was paid $600 per day with no ancillary expenses. That’s a fantastic gig for an 18-year-old kid. Meanwhile, you’ll take related academic courses on biology and anatomy.

By the time you finish the 16 cycles, you’ll know how to fly a plane as a private pilot. You will spend a month in Florida operating heavy equipment—tractors, bulldozers, backhoes, cranes—something that will be valuable for the rest of your life. You’ll go to Canada and spend a month learning to work metal and become a welder. You’ll spend a month learning to build a house. You’ll learn open-ocean sailing. You’ll spend a month learning to survive in the wilderness, and another working with horses and cattle on a ranch. You’ll spend three months in Thailand learning martial arts, because any young man should know how to defend himself and his family. And much more.

And while you’re doing these active, hands-on, physical things, as well as taking academic courses, you’ll also be doing unrelated fun stuff. Things that a well-rounded man should know. We encourage everyone to become certified as open-water scuba diver. You might take acting classes. Learn skydiving. Learn golf and tennis, chess and go, poker and bridge. Obviously, these may not have direct economic benefits, but they’re challenges. They’re broadening, and groove you into very different environments. That’s an important part of The Preparation. Historically, young men have always engaged in a trial by fire, a hero’s journey. But that concept is totally missing from society today.

The Preparation makes sure young men don’t just sit in a classroom for four years listening to woke professors talk. If young men don’t cut the class entirely, they’ll probably fall asleep after a night of partying, or their minds will wander. If the professor says anything valuable, his words vanish into the ether. Even if you take notes, they may not be good.

The academic portion of The Preparation includes lectures by world-class professors, giving command performances that you can listen to any number of times to really master the material. They’re actually entertaining—unlike many college classes, which can be boring and are often taught in rooms of a hundred students by teaching assistants.

International Man: A lot of young people today are questioning the value of a traditional college education. In your view, how does The Preparation serve as an alternative—or an answer—to college for those looking to launch themselves into the world effectively?

Doug Casey: The three most important verbs in all languages are be, do, and have. One of the problems with modern American society is that have is now the most important verb. I want to have a good-looking spouse. I want to have a nice house. I want to have a good job. The way we see it, anything that you have should be the result of what you do in the real world by producing things of value.

And by doing, you’ll increase your state of being, as well as having. The essence of The Preparation isn’t just gaining knowledge and skills—it’s to allow a young man to mold his own character to become the type of man he wants to be. That model is exemplified by the characters portrayed in The Count of Monte Cristo, or the television series Have Gun – Will Travel. Or in real life, the 19th-century explorer Richard Burton. These are all characters who, if you dropped them into the Congo Rainforest with nothing but the clothes on their backs, would emerge triumphant, rich and famous after a year.

We’re trying to lay out a path for the reader to become a Renaissance Man, as opposed to getting on an indoctrination treadmill. This book is not about getting a job as a drone in a cubicle in order to wind up as a middle manager. The Preparation will qualify anyone who completes it as somebody employers will fight over. But a graduate of The Preparation would likely take a job only as a step along the way. The true objective is to be self-employed and in charge of your own life. You don’t want to be the effect of somebody else’s cause. Which is the fate of employees.

In fact, most jobs are now on dead-end paths with the advent of artificial intelligence. We’re going into a massive economic and social revolution. It’s as big a deal as what happened 200 years ago with the Industrial Revolution. You can’t prepare for it by taking a bunch of boring cookie-cutter courses in school that prepare you for nothing. You—or your son or grandson– want to use the four years when most are being corrupted in college, to transform yourself into a Renaissance Man. Someone who can not only survive, but thrive and triumph in any environment.

International Man: What are some of the most important life skills and mindsets you think young men will gain from The Preparation that they’re unlikely to learn in school or from society at large?

Doug Casey: With the numerous skills, abilities, experiences, and depth of knowledge, that they’ll gain through The Preparation, young men will not need or want to climb a ladder that somebody else sets up for them. What we’re trying to do is give them a path to creating a web, as a spider might—so they can move in any direction, rather than being stuck on a ladder where the people are trying to climb over each other. Climbing somebody else’s corporate ladder makes no sense in today’s context.

By following the path we outline in the book—the amount of time it will take, the precise costs, where to go, what to do—you’ll see the way to becoming a Renaissance Man. We expect those who complete The Preparation to have much more than college graduates because they can do a wide variety of things. And most importantly, they will have transformed themselves into being the type of person who everyone wants to associate with. A stand-up guy who can do most anything, and can be relied on to do the right thing.

I urge you to get this book (LINK TO AMAZON). Read the reviews on Amazon if you don’t believe me. Co-authors Matt and Max Smith and I are on a mission to transform the course America is on. Please join us.