No Debate: Hysteria And Conformity The New Norm On Campus
Colleges
have historically been tasked with challenging students to think about and
debate various ideas, and encouraged them to seek out all sides of an issue. Students
were introduced to vast new (to them) stores of human knowledge and were taught
about the evolution of thought from Aristotle, Plato and Socrates thru Cicero,
Disraeli and Locke on up to modern times. They were, in short, given a
classically liberal education. At the University I attended, most students were
encouraged to enroll in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA as everyone referred
to it) for two years before matriculating to the specific college that would be
the launching pad to their chosen field of endeavor. (So I did).
In days
of yore, teachers and professors unabashedly came at you with arguments,
attempting to figuratively push you into a corner, to see if you could, through
logic and reason, intellectually fight your way out of that corner. This would
quickly and clearly show them what you did- or didn’t- know about the given
subject. In fact, rhetoric and debate were integral parts of academic
instruction on many campuses. In this way, and through adequate reflection, a
student learned what he or she truly believed. The goal of a liberal education was to show students how to think, not tell them what to think. It was also to challenge
them with difficult concepts and get them out of their comfort zone, illustrating
the world as it was, that they might have the tools- the mental wherewithal- to
be able to solve problems, create, innovate, advance and generally make things
better.
Those
days are over. I shudder to think of the future.
Today,
many students at most colleges and universities do not want to be exposed to
opposing ideas, viewpoints or anything that might make them the slightest bit
uncomfortable in any way. Students expect to be coddled; when they
believe they aren’t, they feel oppressed.
Words and phrases are being banned, Halloween costumes are being aggressively
policed and books are being removed from study, all so the students don’t
suffer emotional “trauma.” A student on one campus asked a colleague not to use
the word “violate” (as in, ‘did that violate the law?’) as it might trigger
distress. Students frequently talk of “micro-aggressions,” “trigger warnings”
and “safe spaces.”
At
Claremont McKenna College two students posted a Halloween picture of themselves
wearing sombreros. The campus went berserk. The dean of students resigned. At
Dartmouth a mob paraded through the library, demanding that students stand up
in solidarity and shoving those who seemed unwilling into its walls, in a
chilling imitation of Nazi Brown-shirts.
The New York Times reported that at (the elite Ivy League’s) Brown
University, “students set up a ‘safe space’ that
offered calming music, cookies, Play-Doh and a video of frolicking puppies to
help students cope.” (College students used to search for Plato, not Play-Doh!).
And
some kids their age are fighting overseas. Where are the best and the brightest?
The
paper further stated, “the sense that hearing opposing opinions can cause
damage to the psyche – has seeped from the campus to the classroom. Literary
classics are now considered potentially ‘unsafe’ for students to read. Reading
lists at some universities are being adapted to come with warnings printed
beside certain titles.” Two of those titles are:
*“The
Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Trigger: suicide, domestic abuse and
graphic violence)
*”Mrs.
Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf (Trigger: suicidal tendencies)
Professors at some colleges have told their students that, “if a
book makes them feel unsafe,” they are allowed to skim it, or skip it
altogether, according to a Harvard Law professor. (Obviously the Bible would be
one of those books, were there anyone in academia thinking it worthy of study.
Oddly enough, the Koran, however, could not be banned in this
politically-correct climate).
Essentially,
real learning is being extinguished. Along with logic, reason, courage…and
freedom. Ironically, the College of Liberal Arts has been transformed into the
College of Illiberal Arts, or CIA.
The American Founders were the most
educated, open-minded leaders imaginable. They had a burning hunger for
knowledge and loved to question and debate. They faced- and overcame- seemingly
insurmountable obstacles. (George Washington did not have a “safe space” replete
with calming music, cookies, Play-Doh and videos of frolicking puppies at
Valley Forge).
Thomas
Jefferson famously said, “I have sworn, on the altar of God, eternal hostility
to all forms of tyranny over the minds of man.”
Students no
longer are exposed to that quote.
“God” and “hostility” are triggers
that, like, make them feel uncomfortable, you know.
If any
of you disagree with any of my opinions, I don’t want to hear it!
I’m
going to get a cookie.
And
cry.
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