College Today: "As If They Are Raising Human Veal"
Nick Gillespie has it right at the Daily Beast on the ever-increasing infantilization of college students with "trigger warnings" and all:
But really, what the fuck is wrong with kids these days and, more important, the supposed adults who look after them? They act as if they are raising human veal that cannot even stand on their own legs or face the sunlight without having their eyeballs burned out and their hearts broken by a single deep breath or uncomfortable moment. I'm just waiting for stories of college deans carrying students from class to class on their backs.As a first-generation college student way back when, one of the very greatest things about college was engaging with ideas and attitudes that were different than what you already knew. Attending Rutgers in the early '80s, you could walk from one end of the centuries-old College Avenue Campus to the other and encounter screaming matches over divesting the stocks of companies that did business in South Africa, whether Nicaragua was already a Soviet satellite, and the supposedly self-hating theology of Jews for Jesus.
Hardly a week went by, it seemed, without a public demonstration for and against the burgeoning gay rights movement, a protested showing of the anti-abortion movie Silent Scream, and debates over how great and/or evil Ronald Reagan actually was. The whole idea of college was about arguing and debating, not shielding ourselves from disagreements.
Even as it seemed to be an all-you-can-eat buffet of exotic new ideas, outrages, and attitudes, it wasn't paradise, and I shudder to think of the insensitivities that were taken for granted by the privileged and internalized by the oppressed of the day. Nobody wants to return to the days when campus was segregated by race, gender, and lest we forget, class.
But the way students and especially administrators talk about college today, you'd think parents are paying ever-higher tuition so their children can attend a reeducation camp straight out of China's Cultural Revolution. It's as if college presidents, deans, and the ever-increasing number of bureaucrats and administrators and residence-life muckety-mucks walked away from Animal House firmly believing that Dean Wormer was not only the hero of movie but a role model. At all costs, order must be enforced and no space for free play or discord can be allowed!
It gets better and better. From NRO (National Review Online -- though it sounds like it's from National Review of the Onion):
Campus Group Apologizes to Students 'Triggered' by Anti-Microaggressions Exhibit
In a Facebook group I belong to there was a big to-do about someone posting a link to something with a warning of "VERY DISTURBING" in all caps and other symbols around it. Well, someone clicked the link anyway, got upset, and started flipping out on the person that posted it because she wasn't warned properly that the story might be upsetting (it was an article about child discipline vs abuse). When it was pointed out that there was a warning and she still chose to open it she went off about how it was inappropriate to post in a parenting group and that she's having a hard time with life so the article was very distressing to her, caused her a panic attack, etc. How do people that "fragile" managed to get through the day?
BunnyGirl at May 1, 2015 10:38 AM
How do people that "fragile" managed to get through the day?
Posted by: BunnyGirl at May 1, 2015 10:38 AM
Good question, and every time you encounter this hysteria, this would be a good question to ask, and demand an answer.
I can't think of any other way to tamp down this nonsense.
Isab at May 1, 2015 11:42 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2015/05/01/college_today_a.html#comment-5994669">comment from IsabThey must burst into tears just crossing the street.
Amy Alkon at May 1, 2015 12:32 PM
Catering to, and thereby encouraging, the most easily offended individuals gives our betters -- government functionaries and college administrators -- all the more justification for extending their power and their intrusions into our personal lives -- for our own good and protection, of course!
Jay R at May 1, 2015 12:35 PM
I remember back at OU when a stoner stepped out into traffic and got hit by a car. The hood ornament pierced his belly and he was bleeding all over the pavement. This cute little black woman saw that and started screaming and screaming freaking out over the blood. So everyone rushed over to help her, mostly ignoring the confused stoner bleeding in the street.
Ben at May 1, 2015 12:57 PM
"They act as if they are raising human veal"
Has the raising of veal calves actually become sensitive and humane?
Funny, I hadn't heard the boycott was called off - last I heard, such calves were treated horribly.
lenona at May 1, 2015 2:12 PM
Ben, they were much less likely to catch lice helping the screamer than the stoner. Besides, cute woman...
markm at May 1, 2015 4:24 PM
Nice thing about hearing someone use words like 'trigger' and 'microaggression'.
You immediately know who is totally devoid of backbone, and not worth listening to in any way.
Robert at May 4, 2015 9:21 AM
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