I don't really want to, but two events recently have pushed me to take a good hard look at today's college-aged youth because, in another old man cliche, I don't remember things being like this when I was in college.
What are the events? Those surrounding the Halloween debacle in California and Yale as well as the protests in Missouri over questionable circumstances, and the "Million Student March," both of which are, to be blunt, fucked up, and both of which stem from the same root: entitlement.
There have always been entitled people. That's the way of the world. There are always going to be people like that: arrogant in a way which expects people to take care of them - because if people ever stopped taking care of them, they would be totally helpless. It's one way to get by I suppose. We've all been in situations where we've felt helpless. For some people, it's an opportunity to develop the skills needed to overcome that. But for others, including a large number of college students today, it would seem, it's an opportunity to whine about it and bully people into getting what you want.
Let's start with that, because it's deeply ironic. Bullying is a form of weakness. If you're resorting to it, you're depending on your victim to help you out rather than on yourself and your skills. That makes you the loser in that situation. That's not the irony. I just wanted to make that clear. The irony is that anti-bullying is cited as one of the reasons why the biggest bullies of our generation, social justice warriors, bully other people.
Let's be clear here: we have a race problem in this country. We do. Minorities get the shit end of the stick statistically speaking. I know a little bit about this, and when I say a little bit, I mean more than most people. Sorry, but it's true and I have two degrees to back it up. In order to solve this race problem, we need, above all else, to talk about it. A lot.
So what's the problem? Well, we can't. Because it might "trigger" someone. Never mind that soldiers are coming back from an endless war with actual PTSD. According to SJWs, we should be more worried about offending an overweight person by talking about how we "privileged" skinny people work our asses off in a most literal way. What's the problem? Well, we don't just have a race problem, but also an obesity problem, and we can't solve that by telling people that being obese is ok. In a similar fashion, we cannot address race if we are unwilling to talk about it. It may "trigger" a minority to talk about race (although in 25 years I have never known that to be the case), but you can't fix something if you don't look at it. If you talk about race, someone might say something racist.
Fucking LET THEM.
Yes, let them. Of course it's offensive. It's a mark of progress that the word nigger is offensive. It means that we have advanced to a degree where we have largely said, "hey, being derogatory to black people isn't cool." So that's great. Now let's talk about it. Let's talk about the word nigger, why we don't use it anymore, and what to do about the fact that even though we don't, black people still face many many issues that white people simply never know about. Guess what? Someone might say something racist during that too, and that will give you a starting point. If you don't allow a person to say something offensive, you will never know they were harboring that thought and you're not going to be able to find out why they're racist and convince them of it.
But instead of talking about race and being honest with each other and trying to understand each other better as humans, we avoid anything controversial because someone's feelings might get hurt. How can that possibly be productive? Academia is about free thought, not conforming to a set of societal standards the mob sets.
Let me tell you something about history: nothing gets solved without someone being unhappy about it. Progress doesn't happen without discomfort. You can't face big issues without some mental stress. That's life. That's how things work. You are going to be offended at some point in your life. And sometimes you'll grow from it. I'm not saying that a black person being called a slur is good for them or anything like that. Really, I'm not. What I'm saying is that a middle-class white student would benefit from hearing something offensive because it might wake them up to the reality that this stuff is nasty and it exists out there, outside of their little bubble. And they they're more likely to do something about it. When there's a problem in the world, whether it's race in America or a leaky sink, you don't refuse to talk about it because you don't like it. You fucking fix it.
The problem today is that college aged students don't seem to want to fix anything, including their own problems. Let me tell you a little story. I went to college. Then I went to grad school. Then I incurred approximately a BMW M4's worth of debt and now I'm paying hundreds a month to pay it back. Not once, not one fucking time, did I think anyone but me was responsible for that debt. I agreed to the loan and I'm going to pay it. I don't harbor any ill will towards my loan servicer or the people I'm paying because I considered my education worthwhile and I was willing to make financial sacrifices to pay for it. I don't expect someone to hand me anything to cover it. Ever. Someone did hand me a LOT. Without him, and other members of my family, I'd have even MORE debt, and I'm eternally grateful to him and everyone who's ever given me anything. But I never asked for anyone to pay my loans. Not once.
So what the fuck is with the "Million Student March?"
It's not good enough that you're "entitled" to not be offended, but you have to make others pay for it while you get drunk at a frat and terrorize your professors if they say something you disagree with? I've seen some spoiled kids in my day, but that's too much.
Let's get something straight. If you're one of those people who thinks like that, you can talk about equality and social justice all you want, but at the end of the day, what you want is to have an education, medical care, and more money, but you don't want to pay for or earn it. You want to take it from other people. That's what you're advocating. You're entitled and it doesn't make you a social justice "warrior." It makes you an asshole. You're not a warrior. You're a brat.
If you're one of these people, you need to get something through your head: this world owes you exactly nothing.
Is that harsh? Follow up: does it matter? It's the way things are. The nature of physical reality is that if you are alone in the woods and you don't find a way to solve your problem real fast, you die. Nature doesn't care. Are you a good person? Hope you know how to light a fire, because if not, you're dead. Did you give to charity? Who gives a shit? Better learn how to fish or forage, because otherwise you're dead. Did you post on Tumblr that you think body shaming is bad? That's nice. Might want to find shelter or you're dead.
That's the zero sum reality of the world. You can argue that we're not in nature anymore, and that's true, but the basic principle applies here and universally: if you can't solve your own issues and use what's around you to do it, that doesn't mean anyone has a responsibility to save you. If you want something, you either work or you give someone something in return. Want to survive a cold night in the woods? Learn to build a fire. Want to go to college? Pay for it.
The point I'm trying to make here is that the problem starts when you feel you're owed something. You're not. You never will be.
Is that a pessimistic view of the world? I don't think so. Accomplishing goals is the best feeling on Earth. A child who has been spoiled and coddled, or expects to be, is being robbed of the best thing in life: achievement. Getting a free education that you bullied your way through won't feel good. It won't teach you anything. It won't help you. You're still helpless. And now you lack the skills and experience to help yourself.
I expect these kids will grow up, but I hope they do it soon because this is a problem. It is stunting societal growth in every conceivable way. Those who argue for free education and then negate their education by forcing their professors, who are experts in their field, to teach according to guidelines formulated on Reddit or Tumblr, are asking others to squander their money. In the end, the result can only be an undereducated public and a drain of wealth to that public. I may be old, but I don't want any kids educated by that process on my lawn.
Do you?
