Posted on 11/12/2015 7:29:35 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It seems like every week there's a new horror story of political correctness run amok at some college campus.
A warning not to wear culturally insensitive Halloween costumes sparked an imbroglio at Yale, which went viral over the weekend. A lecturer asked in an e-mail, "Is there no room anymore for a child to be a little bit obnoxious . . . a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?"
Students went ballistic. When an administrator (who is the lecturer's spouse) defended free speech, some students wanted his head. One student wrote in a Yale Herald op-ed (now taken down): "He doesn't get it. And I don't want to debate. I want to talk about my pain."
Washington Post columnist (and Tufts professor) Daniel Drezner was initially horrified by the spectacle but ultimately backtracked. Invoking Friedrich Hayek's insights from "The Use of Knowledge in Society," Drezner cautions outside observers that "there is an awful lot of knowledge that is local in character, that cannot be culled from abstract principles or detached observers."
As a Hayek fanboy and champion of localism, I should be quite sympathetic. But this time, I think Drezner's initial reaction was closer to the mark. The notion that the Yale incident is an isolated one defies all the evidence.
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, and Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, recently wrote a sweeping survey titled "The Coddling of the American Mind" for The Atlantic, in which they cataloged how students are being swaddled in an emotional cocoon.
Taco bars at sorority fundraisers are considered offensive. A group at Duke University deemed phrases such as "man up" too horrible to tolerate. And so on.
The suggestion that the tempest at Yale is an isolated incident reminds me of my favorite line from Thoreau: "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk."
So what is going on?
Well, a lot. Many conservatives want to put all the blame on political correctness or cultural Marxism. And though I think such ideologies certainly belong in the dock, political correctness is now quite old.
Lamentations about it were commonplace when I was in college 25 years ago. Does anyone, other than a few campus hotheads, actually believe universities are more intolerant, bigoted, and racist than they were a generation ago?
What has changed are the students. Yes, there has been a lot of ideological indoctrination in which kids are taught that taking offense gives them power. But, again, that idea is old. What's new is the way kids are being raised.
Consider play. Children are hardwired to play. That's how we learn. But what happens when play is micro-managed? St. Lawrence University professor Steven Horwitz argues that it undermines democracy.
Free play --tag in the schoolyard, pickup basketball at the park, etc. --is a very complicated thing. It requires young people to negotiate rules among themselves, without the benefit of some third-party authority figure. These skills are hugely important in life. When parents or teachers short-circuit that process by constantly intervening to stop bullying or just to make sure that everyone plays nice, Horwitz argues, "we are taking away a key piece of what makes it possible for free people to be peaceful, cooperative people by devising bottom-up solutions to a variety of conflicts."
The rise in "helicopter parenting" and the epidemic of "everyone gets a trophy" education are another facet of the same problem. We're raising millions of kids to be smart and kind, but also fragile.
And what happens when large numbers of these delicate little flowers are set free to navigate their way through life? They feel unsafe and demand "safe spaces." They feel threatened by uncomfortable ideas and demand "trigger warnings." They might even want written rules or contracts to help them negotiate sexual relations.
In other words, this is the generation the mandarins of political correctness have been waiting for.
--Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review.
No, we are raising bully kids.
Fragile kids would not be subverting everything they touch.
Thus, the whole concept of this peculiar “safe zone” where kids can avoid reality and accountibility.
"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something."
-No-one of Consequence
I have to conclude that America has generationS of children now who were born but not raised.
“Fragile kids” = Brain-dead petulant brats.
We needed an enterprising soul with a simple quadcopter, there ... the truth would have been revealed.
Yes, they are between 20 and 30+ years old.
Indeed.
My own theory is that this is “Occupy [your town here]” version 2.0
Or “Occupy Campuses”
As idiot Nazi Pelosi said about ‘Occupy Wall street’ -”it’s wonderful and spontaneous and blah blah blah...” (not sure if she actually said the words blah blah blah)
So spontaneous that they had food tents set up with hired caterers and servers, and paid protesters.
And NO ONE in the media asked who was paying them.
This college campus thing started with campus sexual assault epidemic, that turned out to be one moron carrying a mattress around, who later was proven to be a liar.
Despite that they continue with this ‘campus assault’ meme, and now have added ‘safe areas’ where hypersensitivity to any perceived OR MANUFACTURED slight is magnified 1000 and advanced as legitimate grievance requiring SOME ACTION BE TAKEN!!!
I think the administrator who resigned was part of it- They promised him a cushy job elsewhere maybe?
No one who rises to that level (ON MERIT) would resign over such stupidity.
This is the culmination of LBJ’s “Great Society”
A generation born to the generation who were given handouts by LBJ to destroy family life.
Campus Commotions Show We’re Raising Dhimmi Kids. Perfect timing ...
“Fragile” is now the euphemism for “spoiled rotten sheltered brats?”
Perhaps we should pull out the Kent State history and review things.
After the Kent State shooting...numerous parents got worried and either immediately pulled their kids from the school, or waited til the semester concluded to pull the kid.
It did not take more than a few weeks for Kent State management realize their “brand name” was screwed up. So, they went did some radical things.
They terminated students who were aggravated triggers. They told them to go elsewhere.
They hired up their own security or police force, and did not rely upon the state or the local city for enforcement issues anymore.
They also brought professors in and told them to clean up or get fired.
“born but not raised.”
Or they are hatched and allowed to run wild.
****Yes, they are between 20 and 30+ years old. ****
The same average age as the MEN who stormed Normandy and Iwo Jima. What a difference between people then and now!
Yep!
I think we need to look at this in a deeper light.
This is a purposely propagandized political movement to manufacture “racismâ€. There are Democrat Party political operatives actively stoking this fake “Racismâ€on Social media. Black Lives matters, the MO college campus etc are being staged.
I don’t know how many of you have teenagers but my teenagers are upset almost daily but this Instagram or Snap Chat or Facebook posting about this or that supposed racial attack. Once this crap is posted, it goes viral almost instantly
Look the Left needs their voter base fired up in 2016. The bulkwork of Democrat votes is the Black vote. They won in 2008 and 2012 by turning our record number of black votes. In 2016 they have NO candidates who appeal to that voter block. The Leftist machine must find a way to fire up that base. These fake “racists†attacks are the tool they are using.
We need some investigative reporters to start digging hard into this. I suspect you will find that these “racist reports†are being purposefully fed into social media by a very very few sources
NO, people are raising BRATS that need their butts kicked, things taken away and a job to learn how to make it on their own....
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