July 18, 2025 • 8 mins
The Ivy League was never perfect.
But it used to produce loyalty, grit, and real leadership — forged through brotherhood, not bureaucracy.
Today? The final clubs, eating clubs, and secret societies that once shaped generations have been sidelined… replaced by curated cohorts, DEI offices, and a fear of unfiltered conversation.
Jim Detjen — Army veteran, Harvard dad (x2), and cultural strategist — unpacks what the Ivy League used to stand for, what it’s become, and why the rest of America should care.
Inspired by Lucca Ruggieri’s essay, “Brotherhood, Not Bureaucracies,” published at The American Mind.
Includes dry wit, personal stories, a shoutout to Legally Blonde, and one brutal question:
Can you engineer belonging… or does it have to be earned?
Stay sharp. Stay skeptical. #SpotTheGaslight
Read and reflect at Gaslight360.com/clarity
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Think First, where we don't follow the script
.
We question it Because, in aworld full of poetic truths and
professional gaslighting,someone's got to say the quiet
part out loud.
Why is it that the Ivy Leagueused to be the heartbeat of the
American elite but now soundslike an HR department on a
(00:24):
diversity retreat?
Why can you quote Dead PoetsSociety or the Skulls and still
sense that whatever used to bereal about these places has been
quietly erased?
And what happens to a societywhen its oldest brotherhoods are
replaced by committees built tomonitor belonging?
We're told this is progress.
(00:45):
But what if it's not?
And today we're going there.
You don't need an Ivy Leaguedegree to feel it.
Just stream a few movies andscroll your feed.
Once these schools evokedmystery, power, codes of honor,
the quiet weight of legacy.
Now they issue press releasesabout safe spaces.
(01:07):
The eating clubs of Princeton,where generations formed
unspoken bonds over long meals,now feel like something the
administration has to apologizefor.
The final clubs at Harvard,once elite social crucibles love
them or hate them have beenpushed to the margins like some
kind of ideological contagionand Yale it's secret societies,
(01:32):
those quiet incubators ofambition and trust are being
treated like relics of ashameful past, not because they
failed, but because they can'tbe controlled.
And that is the real threat.
Let's add Colombia to the map,because if there's one place
that's become a masterclass inideological bureaucracy, it's
Colombia.
No longer content to educatethe elite, colombia is now
(01:55):
determined to reprogram them,not through ideas, but through
structures, training sessions,bias, response teams, new
departments with names thatsound more like non-profit
startups than educationalentities.
Their recent chaos, fromanti-Semitic sit-ins to faculty
meltdowns, isn't a glitch.
It's a feature of the new model.
(02:16):
Dismantle the old forms oftrust.
Replace them with bureaucraticrituals of control.
Here's what the bureaucratsdon't get.
The Ivy League's true magicnever came from the policies.
It came from the unsupervisedmoments late-night debates in
dorm rooms, the whisperedconversations in cloisters, the
(02:38):
pranks, the fights, the loyaltyforged when no adult was
watching.
You don't build that with ahandbook, you don't create that
through an office of inclusion,and you sure as hell don't
regulate it with a Google form.
Those great clubs and societies, they weren't just social
diversions.
They were soft crucibles, minicrucibles of hierarchy,
(03:00):
personality, tension and trust.
You got in not because youfiled a petition, but because
someone believed you belonged.
It wasn't always fair, itwasn't always kind, but it was
real.
Now they're building artificialreplacements faculty-led
affinity groups, curatedidentity experiences, peer
(03:22):
mentors trained to say thingslike I hear your truth instead
of shut up and pass the bourbon.
To say things like I hear yourtruth instead of shut up and
pass the bourbon.
Ask yourself, why are the sameinstitutions that once forged
the men who led America throughwar markets and revolutions now
(03:43):
producing consultants forMcKinsey and Bain, finance guys
at Goldman and JP Morgan and,yes, emotionally fragile policy
interns?
What changed it wasn't thestudents, it wasn't even the
world, it was the decision tosacrifice brotherhood on the
altar of bureaucracy, to trade,risk, for control, depth, for
process, memory, for messaging.
Now here's the gaslight.
(04:03):
They told us the old Ivy Leaguewas exclusionary, patriarchal,
flawed.
Fair enough it was, but whatthey built instead isn't
inclusive, it's hollow.
The old brotherhoods were messybut magnetic.
They built bonds thattranscended generations.
The new systems, they buildresumes.
(04:24):
You don't leave them changed,you leave them credentialed, and
that's not the same thing.
Let me speak from experience.
I've got two kids at Harvardand I spend a lot of time in
Cambridge on campus andconversations watching it all
unfold.
As a parent, I'm active in theHarvard alumni and parent
community.
I've spent time on campus, satin meetings, listened closely
(04:47):
and after a while you start tonotice the pattern, the gap
between what the institutionsays it values and what actually
shapes people.
Now put that next to my time inthe United States Army Infantry
in the 90s, a world wherevalues weren't printed on
banners, they were lived, testedand earned.
We didn't have DEI trainings,we didn't hold space or form
(05:10):
committees.
We had real diversity ofbackground, belief, grit, and it
worked.
Because we didn't manage it.
We trusted each other, werespected the mission and we got
very comfortable beinguncomfortable.
That's what forms brotherhood.
The Ivy League used to know this.
Now they run from it.
Here's a question for you IfHarvard's final clubs and Yale's
(05:35):
secret societies were so toxic,why are their most powerful
alumni still bonded through them?
Why do Supreme Court justices,senators, presidents still keep
those unspoken ties long afterthe faculty lounge moved on?
It's not because they shared aseminar, it's because they
shared a right.
It's not because they shared aseminar, it's because they
(05:58):
shared a right.
Let me leave you with this.
Real brotherhood can't beengineered.
It can't be rebranded withwords like cohort or allyship.
It's forged in challenge,protected by silence and
revealed in moments when noone's watching.
That's what gave the Ivy Leagueits mystique Not the buildings,
not the endowments, not thebranding, but the truth that
(06:19):
somewhere behind the prestigeand politics was a circle of men
or women who would fight foreach other, and we are starving
for that again.
You don't need all the answers,but you should question the ones
you're handed, even if they'rewritten in Garamond on Harvard
(06:41):
letterhead.
If this resonated, you mightwant to read the article that
sparked it all Brotherhood, notBureaucracies, by Luca Ruggieri
over at the American Mind.
It's smart, sharp and honest,even if you didn't go to Harvard
.
Until next time, stay skeptical, stay curious and always think
(07:04):
first.
And if you're curious aboutwhat the old school Ivy League
(07:28):
man actually was, try books likethe Company they Keep by Diana
Schaub, god and man at Yale byWilliam F Buckley Jr or, for a
fictional dose, a Separate Peaceby John Knowles.
None of them require an alumnilogin, just a working brain and
maybe a bit of backbone.
It also pairs nicely with yourfavorite Ivy League films the
(07:51):
Social Network, the Paper Chase,a Beautiful Mind, good Will
Hunting and a family classic inour house Legally Blonde.
Different kind of law review,same energy.
Thank you.
This is Think First, where we don't follow the script
.
We question it Because, in aworld full of poetic truths and
professional gaslighting,someone's got to say the quiet
part out loud.
Why is it that the Ivy Leagueused to be the heartbeat of the
American elite but now soundslike an HR department on a
(00:24):
diversity retreat?
Why can you quote Dead PoetsSociety or the Skulls and still
sense that whatever used to bereal about these places has been
quietly erased?
And what happens to a societywhen its oldest brotherhoods are
replaced by committees built tomonitor belonging?
We're told this is progress.
(00:45):
But what if it's not?
And today we're going there.
You don't need an Ivy Leaguedegree to feel it.
Just stream a few movies andscroll your feed.
Once these schools evokedmystery, power, codes of honor,
the quiet weight of legacy.
Now they issue press releasesabout safe spaces.
(01:07):
The eating clubs of Princeton,where generations formed
unspoken bonds over long meals,now feel like something the
administration has to apologizefor.
The final clubs at Harvard,once elite social crucibles love
them or hate them have beenpushed to the margins like some
kind of ideological contagionand Yale it's secret societies,
(01:32):
those quiet incubators ofambition and trust are being
treated like relics of ashameful past, not because they
failed, but because they can'tbe controlled.
And that is the real threat.
Let's add Colombia to the map,because if there's one place
that's become a masterclass inideological bureaucracy, it's
Colombia.
No longer content to educatethe elite, colombia is now
(01:55):
determined to reprogram them,not through ideas, but through
structures, training sessions,bias, response teams, new
departments with names thatsound more like non-profit
startups than educationalentities.
Their recent chaos, fromanti-Semitic sit-ins to faculty
meltdowns, isn't a glitch.
It's a feature of the new model.
(02:16):
Dismantle the old forms oftrust.
Replace them with bureaucraticrituals of control.
Here's what the bureaucratsdon't get.
The Ivy League's true magicnever came from the policies.
It came from the unsupervisedmoments late-night debates in
dorm rooms, the whisperedconversations in cloisters, the
(02:38):
pranks, the fights, the loyaltyforged when no adult was
watching.
You don't build that with ahandbook, you don't create that
through an office of inclusion,and you sure as hell don't
regulate it with a Google form.
Those great clubs and societies, they weren't just social
diversions.
They were soft crucibles, minicrucibles of hierarchy,
(03:00):
personality, tension and trust.
You got in not because youfiled a petition, but because
someone believed you belonged.
It wasn't always fair, itwasn't always kind, but it was
real.
Now they're building artificialreplacements faculty-led
affinity groups, curatedidentity experiences, peer
(03:22):
mentors trained to say thingslike I hear your truth instead
of shut up and pass the bourbon.
To say things like I hear yourtruth instead of shut up and
pass the bourbon.
Ask yourself, why are the sameinstitutions that once forged
the men who led America throughwar markets and revolutions now
(03:43):
producing consultants forMcKinsey and Bain, finance guys
at Goldman and JP Morgan and,yes, emotionally fragile policy
interns?
What changed it wasn't thestudents, it wasn't even the
world, it was the decision tosacrifice brotherhood on the
altar of bureaucracy, to trade,risk, for control, depth, for
process, memory, for messaging.
Now here's the gaslight.
(04:03):
They told us the old Ivy Leaguewas exclusionary, patriarchal,
flawed.
Fair enough it was, but whatthey built instead isn't
inclusive, it's hollow.
The old brotherhoods were messybut magnetic.
They built bonds thattranscended generations.
The new systems, they buildresumes.
(04:24):
You don't leave them changed,you leave them credentialed, and
that's not the same thing.
Let me speak from experience.
I've got two kids at Harvardand I spend a lot of time in
Cambridge on campus andconversations watching it all
unfold.
As a parent, I'm active in theHarvard alumni and parent
community.
I've spent time on campus, satin meetings, listened closely
(04:47):
and after a while you start tonotice the pattern, the gap
between what the institutionsays it values and what actually
shapes people.
Now put that next to my time inthe United States Army Infantry
in the 90s, a world wherevalues weren't printed on
banners, they were lived, testedand earned.
We didn't have DEI trainings,we didn't hold space or form
(05:10):
committees.
We had real diversity ofbackground, belief, grit, and it
worked.
Because we didn't manage it.
We trusted each other, werespected the mission and we got
very comfortable beinguncomfortable.
That's what forms brotherhood.
The Ivy League used to know this.
Now they run from it.
Here's a question for you IfHarvard's final clubs and Yale's
(05:35):
secret societies were so toxic,why are their most powerful
alumni still bonded through them?
Why do Supreme Court justices,senators, presidents still keep
those unspoken ties long afterthe faculty lounge moved on?
It's not because they shared aseminar, it's because they
shared a right.
It's not because they shared aseminar, it's because they
(05:58):
shared a right.
Let me leave you with this.
Real brotherhood can't beengineered.
It can't be rebranded withwords like cohort or allyship.
It's forged in challenge,protected by silence and
revealed in moments when noone's watching.
That's what gave the Ivy Leagueits mystique Not the buildings,
not the endowments, not thebranding, but the truth that
(06:19):
somewhere behind the prestigeand politics was a circle of men
or women who would fight foreach other, and we are starving
for that again.
You don't need all the answers,but you should question the ones
you're handed, even if they'rewritten in Garamond on Harvard
(06:41):
letterhead.
If this resonated, you mightwant to read the article that
sparked it all Brotherhood, notBureaucracies, by Luca Ruggieri
over at the American Mind.
It's smart, sharp and honest,even if you didn't go to Harvard
.
Until next time, stay skeptical, stay curious and always think
(07:04):
first.
And if you're curious aboutwhat the old school Ivy League
(07:28):
man actually was, try books likethe Company they Keep by Diana
Schaub, god and man at Yale byWilliam F Buckley Jr or, for a
fictional dose, a Separate Peaceby John Knowles.
None of them require an alumnilogin, just a working brain and
maybe a bit of backbone.
It also pairs nicely with yourfavorite Ivy League films the
(07:51):
Social Network, the Paper Chase,a Beautiful Mind, good Will
Hunting and a family classic inour house Legally Blonde.
Different kind of law review,same energy.
Thank you.
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