--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The secret dread of modern intellectuals…" description: "\"The secret dread of modern intellectuals, liberals and conservatives alike, the unadmitted terror at the root of their anxiety, which all of their curr..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/ayn-rand-59_altruism_the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals_966437.jpg" --- # The secret dread of modern intellectuals, liberals and… ![“The secret dread of modern intellectuals, liberals and conservatives alike, the unadmitted terror at the root of their anxiety, which all of their current irrationalities are intended to stave off and to disguise, is the unstated knowledge that Soviet Russia [was] the full, actual, literal…” quote by Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/ayn-rand-59_altruism_the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals_966437.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/ayn-rand-59_altruism_the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals_966437.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/ayn-rand-59_altruism_the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals_966437.jpg) > “The secret dread of modern intellectuals, liberals and conservatives alike, the unadmitted terror at the root of their anxiety, which all of their current irrationalities are intended to stave off and to disguise, is the unstated knowledge that Soviet Russia \[was\] the full, actual, literal, consistent embodiment of the morality of altruism, that Stalin did not corrupt a noble ideal, that this is the only way altruism has to be or can ever be practiced.” [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote claims that fear of Soviet Russia reveals a hidden belief that true altruism is only possible through a totalitarian regime, and that this fear drives irrational behavior in both liberals and conservatives. **In simple terms:** It suggests people hide the idea that altruism needs a dictatorial system, causing anxiety and irrationality. Key Takeaway Recognize and question hidden assumptions about altruism and authority. Themes politics psychology philosophy ideology fear Mood critical analytical skeptical Type philosophical political critical When to use this quote - political debate - academic discourse - personal reflection - media analysis - policy making Key Concepts altruism totalitarianism irrationality identity truth Questions to Reflect On - What assumptions about altruism do you hold? - How does fear shape political beliefs? A Different Perspective The claim oversimplifies complex motivations and ignores non‑authoritarian expressions of altruism. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Altruism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/altruism/) [Anxiety](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anxiety/) [Communism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communism/) [Disguise](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disguise/) [Fear](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fear/) [Ideals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideals/) [Irrationality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irrationality/) [Morality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/morality/) [Noble](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/noble/) [Roots](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/roots/) [Russia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/russia/) [Secret](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/secret/) [Soviet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/soviet/) [Soviet russia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/soviet-russia/) ## Related quotes > [If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/if-any-civilization-is-to-survive-it-is-the-morality-of-altruism-that/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Some people automatically associate morality and altruism with a religious vision of the world. But I believe it is a mistake to think that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dalai-lama/some-people-automatically-associate-morality-and-altruism-with-a/) [Dalai Lama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dalai-lama/) > [ I got the idea \[for Anthem's theme\] in my school days, in Soviet Russia, when I heard all the vicious attacks on individualism, and… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/i-got-the-idea-for-anthem-s-theme-in-my-school-days-in-soviet-russia/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Two world wars, three monstrous dictatorships-in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Red China-plus every lesser variant of devastating socialist experimentation in a global spread of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/two-world-wars-three-monstrous-dictatorships-in-soviet-russia-nazi/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Dictatorship nations are outlaws. 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These…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/do-you-know-that-my-personal-crusade-in-life-in-the-philosophical/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“Today, intelligence is neither recognized nor rewarded, but is being systematically extinguished in a growing flood of brazenly flaunted irrationality.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/today-intelligence-is-neither-recognized-nor-rewarded-but-is-being/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/the-truly-and-deliberately-evil-men-are-a-very-small-minority-it-is/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“It was astonishing that the pseudo wreckers, who knew perfectly well that they weren't wreckers, believed that military men and priests were being shaken…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/it-was-astonishing-that-the-pseudo-wreckers-who-knew-perfectly-well/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [I refer to the misunderstanding of Soviet Russia as an aggressive power, militaristically and ideologically bent upon world domination 'seeing', to quote a recent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/enoch-powell/i-refer-to-the-misunderstanding-of-soviet-russia-as-an-aggressive/) [Enoch Powell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/enoch-powell/) > [“The saddest thing of all was that their party represented a deviation from the conditions of the time. It was impossible to imagine that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/boris-pasternak/the-saddest-thing-of-all-was-that-their-party-represented-a-deviation/) [Boris Pasternak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/boris-pasternak/) ## More by Ayn Rand > [There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/there-are-no-white-lies-there-is-only-the-blackest-of-destruction-and/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [She watched the prairies the rivers, the towns slipping past at an untouchable distance below - and she noted that the sense of detachment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/she-watched-the-prairies-the-rivers-the-towns-slipping-past-at-an/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“This was reality, she thought, this sense of clear outlines, of purpose, of lightness, of hope.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/this-was-reality-she-thought-this-sense-of-clear-outlines-of-purpose/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [A “collective” mind does not exist. 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She thought: To find a feeling that would hold, as their sum, as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/there-was-still-one-response-the-greatest-that-she-had-missed-she/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/inflation-is-not-caused-by-the-actions-of-private-citizens-but-by-the/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“We are fornicating in the sight of six billion people.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/we-are-fornicating-in-the-sight-of-six-billion-people/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“She was fifteen when it occurred to her for the first time that women did not run railroads and that people might object. To…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/she-was-fifteen-when-it-occurred-to-her-for-the-first-time-that-women/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/fransisco-you-re-some-kind-of-very-high-nobility-aren-t-you-he/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Have you felt it too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you- except the things that count? And your most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/have-you-felt-it-too-have-you-seen-how-your-best-friends-love/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/every-coercive-monopoly-was-created-by-government-intervention-into/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [We are all brothers under the skin - and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/we-are-all-brothers-under-the-skin-and-i-for-one-would-be-willing-to/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) [Explore all 1,777 Ayn Rand quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) ## More Altruism quotes > [“It takes a female to have a baby, It takes a woman to raise a child, It takes a mother to raise them correctly,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shannon-l-alder/it-takes-a-female-to-have-a-baby-it-takes-a-woman-to-raise-a-child-it/) [Shannon L. 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They never test…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janvier-chouteu-chando/true-classical-dropouts-in-society-are-those-who-avoid-difficult/) [Janvier Chouteu-Chando](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janvier-chouteu-chando/) > [“Take a stand that reflects the widest horizons of your soul if you don’t want to be a slave to external powers.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janvier-chouteu-chando/take-a-stand-that-reflects-the-widest-horizons-of-your-soul-if-you/) [Janvier Chouteu-Chando](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janvier-chouteu-chando/) > [One of the great issues in biology is the origin of altruism - of why you would do something for someone else that could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabella-rossellini/one-of-the-great-issues-in-biology-is-the-origin-of-altruism-of-why/) [Isabella Rossellini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabella-rossellini/) > [How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adam-smith/how-selfish-soever-man-may-be-supposed-there-are-evidently-some/) [Adam Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adam-smith/) > [Restoration ecology is experimental science, a science of love and altruism. 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Their gratitude stems not only from their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janvier-chouteu-chando/most-of-the-truly-kind-people-of-this-world-show-some-measure-of/) [Janvier Chouteu-Chando](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janvier-chouteu-chando/) [Browse all 419 Altruism quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/altruism/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The secret dread of modern intellectuals, liberals and conservatives alike, the unadmitted terror at the root of their anxiety, which all of their current irrationalities are intended to stave off and to disguise, is the unstated knowledge that Soviet Russia [was] the full, actual, literal, consistent embodiment of the morality of altruism, that Stalin did not corrupt a noble ideal, that this is the only way altruism has to be or can ever be practiced.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ayn Rand" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals-liberals-and-conservatives/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Altruism" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals-liberals-and-conservatives/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/ayn-rand-59_altruism_the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals_966437.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/ayn-rand-59_altruism_the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals_966437.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/ayn-rand-59_altruism_the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals_966437.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The secret dread of modern intellectuals, liberals and conservatives alike, the unadmitted terror at the…” — Ayn Rand", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Ayn Rand", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The secret dread of modern intellectuals,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals-liberals-and-conservatives/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/the-secret-dread-of-modern-intellectuals-liberals-and-conservatives/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```