This is, oddly, a wonderful sign of how much of a violence-free society we live in. Can you imagine Ukrainian children thinking "Words are violence" after being shelled by invaders and seeing their neighbors raped and tortured? Picture the folks who have to hide when warlords or drug cartels come to their villages having an anxiety attack over a difference of political opinion? How about the Uighur's living in concentration camps doing slave labor? Or Taiwanese parents watching enemy rockets pass overhead? Ask older folks who live in the former Yugoslavia about violence. Or those who witnessed the Rwandan genocide first hand.
Do not worry - this sort of thing is self-limiting. The folks who indulge themselves with this will not have the resilience to accomplish much and will die out. The pendulum is swinging already.
There is a truth to what you state. When we've had it so good for so long, even slight perturbations cause stress, because we've never learned to deal with them.
Our frame of reference towards what is violent/oppressive/Hitlerian/.... take your pick...is very detached from historical accuracy.
God forbid we ever get into a shooting war, we'd be completely lost.
That might be intentional. This trend is rendering a couple generations physically and emotionally incapable of functioning as soldiers. Who might benefit from such a trend? Is there any practical way for the folks who benefit to intensify or accelerate the trend?
Speech is not violence. Violence is violence. Democracies thrive when they teach the difference. Coerced silence only serves those of totalitarian bent.
I think people would do well to teach the classic formulation of free speech from Justice Brandeis in Whitney v California (1927). Brandenburg v Ohio (1969) explicitly overturned Whitney to further expand on the concept of free speech and what was allowed, namely that: The Court held that the government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action". it is talking about action here and not words.
But I really like the poetry and resonance of Brandeis's words to today's discussion about speech. "Those who won our independence believed . . . that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject. But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed."
Most aren't really experiencing a real threat, they've just been taught to equate political opinions they oppose with hate. Let's call it what it is, a giant Marxist power grab; demonize people you disagree with and call their opinions violence in order to silence them and others; AND IT'S WORKING! And it's not just college students who are experiencing this, this woke sickness is playing itself out in almost every work place in this country. It's also the product of identity politics and rewarding victim status. For years now the Democratic party has promoted this hateful and divisive silencing, canceling, bullying, and slandering of people who dare to stray from the leftist cult narrative. And as much as I'm no big fan of Trump, I have to admit that he's the only Republican that has had the stones to bully these bullies back. That was his appeal and I have to admit that I understand why he was elected. People are fed up with this campaign of Democrat inspired violent protests, urban violence, anti cop, anti male, anti white, and anti American hatred and division. I know I am!
Minor quibble. I looked up the "cry closets". They do not appear to have been set up for safe space from dissenting opinions. They were set up for students on the verge of a nervous breakdown from finals. They were in the library so that students who had been frantically studying for 10 hours straight could take a ten-minute break to curl up and be emotional, then get their shit together and return to studying. That seems pretty reasonable, honestly.
The "free speech" warning sign was hilarious and alarming and a sign of the times. It's like history professors needing to post trigger warnings. OBVIOUSLY history will include the distressing stories and subjects. OBVIOUSLY walking across campus will include encountering different opinions. But we have a bunch of privileged, entitled people who have been taught that the entire world should be arranged to their comfort at all times, and they have a right to advance warning when it will vary from this "norm".
Tim's Maxim: Everyone is mostly wrong about everything always.
Diversity of thought and diversity of perspective are how we learn. All of us develop explanations for the things we experience. We constantly try to make sense of the world. However, our experiences are limited, our perceptions are flawed, and our cognitive faculties are compromised in many different ways. Listening to diverse perspectives is the way we can each challenge our own theories about the world. Alone, I am severely limited in what I can experience and know. Alone to my own, unexamined thoughts I can be of little use to my community.
Look up the work of Daryl Davis and his outreach to KKK members. He 'collects' robes from former Klansmen who have changed their ways. Mr Davis is a Black blues musician.
What is his secret to deprogramming Klansmen? He listens to them - actual listening, not scanning their argument to find a way to 'win.' He is very clear about not expressing agreement or approval for ideas that he opposes but he truly listens to them. When they feel heard they are open to change.
We need to raise a generation of Daryl Davis's not people who feel attacked just because someone else disagrees on which flavor of ice cream is best.
Thanks. You had me at "blues musician", and reading about his method of engaging with others with opposing views is a major bonus. Thanks for the reference.
If the goal of the so called justice warriors is to eliminate all speech, symbols, or so called triggers that send them into a freency, search for the crying room, or demanding someone be silenced, and basically destroy the American foundation. Then eventually the country becomes weak willed and able to be told what and how to conduct themselves.
So you eventually play into the bullies hands, think China and Russia. Ask the Uyghurs or others how much tyrants care about your feelings? These same justice warriors will be the first for identification and re-education. See decent is not allowed and neither is your feelings and wants. You simply exist at the pleasure and choosing of the Government. So if they ever get their wish, I hope the last thing on their mind is, "What the Hell was I thinking"?
Your comment aligns well with mine above. Going further with this - this generation is almost unemployable. Ask HR managers (and professors) about their frivolous complaints.
A favorite: after working six months and being fully onboarded, a young employee complained that his supervisor was not complimenting him as much on his job performance. The supervisor did not criticize he just gave fewer compliments. The HR manager contacted the supervisor who was shocked to hear about this - he replied that while the employee was training he gave frequent positive feedback and encouragement but after the kid was trained on a task and did it reliably well, plenty of compliments about that task seemed superfluous. He still complimented the kid on other tasks, however.
My initial thoughts on your example is, the person never was involved in any teaming activities. Maybe Mom and Dad always made them feel so special. Real world is produce and be competent or move down the road. Pretty sure that person was never in the military also. Unfortunately the first thought of so many is, Me, me, me.
Yah. I am not sure about that guy - I heard that story from a relative who is HR director for a medium-size company. Although team sports these days is contributing to the trend of lavish compliments and participation trophies. The education system in America has gulped down the Kool-Aid to the point educators cannot label an incorrect answer "wrong" because it might hurt the student's feelings then they won't learn anymore. Geesh.
Other countries don't seem to have such fragile children - they criticize students severely and you know what? When America wants STEM professionals, we go to those countries to hire their college graduates with H-1B visas because our college graduates aren't as prepared as they are.
I see. So, you're sayin American companies hire foreign engineers, in part, because they are more resilient and can handle negative feedback. That makes sense. To be a good engineer requires experience and that includes making mistakes _and learning from them_. Anyone who pouts when their mistakes are pointed out won't become a good engineer.
Good engineering saves lives.
The driverless cars they design drive on our roads. We may use the cell phones they design in our emergencies.
The US is becoming a nation of wimps who run and cry whenever their feelings are hurt (see "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Haidt and Lukianoff). The people who will survive and prosper and lead in America are the ones who are willing to listen to others' opinions and either have the fortitude to change their own minds or the critical thinking abilities that are required to counter these other opinions. Open discourse is critical to maturity. I'm just glad I'm not a kid in the 21st century, and I'm thankful to have been raised to deal with these slights, which, in most cases, are very slight.
This is very reasonable and well-argued. As long as disagreements are civil they should be voiced. Not saying what one thinks does harm—and not just to oneself.
Here's one idea on how to begin the change you suggest: WWII movies and documentaries to be shown regularly in every grade from 5 through 12. Require children to see images of Nazi bulldozers burying dead Jews. Require them to see depictions of the D-Day invasions, the fire bombings, and the horrors of the Pacific theater. Make sure they watch films of Hitler's speeches as he was ascending to power and then taking control of a country. Require them to go to the DC Holocaust museum. Require them to see the pictures of dead soldiers on the beach, the burned out ruins of cities. Make sure they understand what real evil an violence looks and FEELS like.
The argument being made is that if only Hitler had been prevented from speaking, then the Holocaust would have been avoided. The conclusion is that ALL distasteful speech (distasteful being entirely subjective) should be treated as a precursor to mass murder. People trained this way FEEL like they are watching a proto-Hitler every time they hear something they disagree with.
Feelings are easily manipulated. People really can FEEL like they've been punched in the gut from words. People can FEEL under acute threat from a glance. Have you ever seen someone having an acute phobic reaction? The spider is harmless, but the person is reacting like it's a lion or a serial killer.
Don't focus on feelings, it's the strategy that got us into this mess in the first place.
My point is that those FEELINGS are overwrought and transient, and that only in learning how to recognize that and "getting past" them to critical thinking can we fix the problem.
People have been taught, over the last 40-50 years, that emotion is more powerful than reason. That needs to be "un-taught".
Yes, they're overwrought. However once an anxiety disorder is created, those feelings are not transient. The hormones and neurotransmitters flooding through the brain are the same as if they were responding to an actual threat. Watching videos of genuine war will reinforce this, not undermine it.
Exposure to things you are scared of generally helps you to overcome your fear, not reinforce it. I think your body and your brain begin to know intuitively that the perceived risk is actually not as dangerous as was first believed. Malcolm Gladwell gives many examples of this in his book David and Goliath. One that stands out to me is the example of the British in WWII being constantly bombed. The idea was that after the first few, they were rather insulated in spirit from the terror of them, feeling a bit invincible. Here is a quote about the panic from bombing that Churchill and others anticipated:
"The panic never came. The psychiatric hospitals built on the outskirts of London were switched over to military use because no one showed up. Many women and children were evacuated to the countryside as the bombing started. But people who needed to stay in the city by and large stayed. As the Blitz continued . . . the British authorities began to observe—to their astonishment—not just courage in the face of the bombing but something closer to indifference. ‘In October 1940 I had occasion to drive through South-East London just after a series of attacks on that district,’ one English psychiatrist wrote just after the war ended:
‘Every hundred yards or so, it seemed, there was a bomb crater or wreckage of what had once been a house or shop. The siren blew its warning and I looked to see what would happen. A nun seized the hand of a child she was escorting and hurried on. She and I seemed to be the only ones who had heard the warning. Small boys continued to play all over the pavements, shoppers went on haggling, a policeman directed traffic in majestic boredom and the bicyclists defied death and the traffic laws. No one, so far as I could see, even looked into the sky.’
Dweck's Growth Mindset and Jordan Peterson's observations about voluntarily facing fears to overcome them also come to mind when thinking about how people respond to fear and how their mindset when facing things matters.
That's true, but only if the people around you aren't reinforcing that it's terrifying and disabling. Deliberately, mindful exposure to spiders will cure a spider phobia, for example. Watching people around you scream and panic at the sight of spiders will create one.
Yes, I agree. A kind of learned panic, learned offense, learned “shock” at a “scandalous” opinion. Some are deliberately trying to instill these things
Aug 16, 2022·edited Aug 16, 2022Liked by Rebecca Velo
What a great article! About 18 months ago I read Jonathan Haidt's book, The Coddling of the American Mind, and was blown away by what was happening on college campuses, e.g. Safe Spaces, Crying Closets, et al.
You nailed it with your opening "Sticks and Stones..." and then continued to point out the nonsense of such a flawed ideology.
And with reference to words being "violent" - the word water doesn't make you wet - and until it does, we need to stop propagating such nonsense.
Thank you so much for a well reasoned and written article. As one of those old Boomers who grew up Polish Catholic we were always taught to return violence with love, turn the other cheek and all. As a retired college professor (1973-2017) I saw students change with the generations but this generation has me stumped. How did we learn to be so intolerant of opinions we disagreed with? I enjoy a good challenge from someone who hears things differently than I said them. It happens after sermons often. I am enjoying engaging young and old in the parish I serve on staff. God is good! Thanks again! Padre Dave
Thank you for your comment! I don’t know how we got here, but we all need to focus on how we get out of here! If one of us doesn’t have free speech, then none of us have free speech! I wish especially the youth could understand this.
There was a time when being offended was not just a legal justification for physical violence, but it was also expected you had to defend your honor against words. Men dueling over insults was a low point in western elitist society, and they knew it, which is why it went away. Now this is all about Marxism. It’s as simple as that - oppressed and oppressor.
This thread has gone far off topic. Certainly I am not blameless in this but it seems that the other topics should be discussed and considered in their own focused sessions. The Original topic raised by HDL merits a focused discussion without distraction.
So. I am "tapping out" so as to not distract from the key point raised in the OP.
I'm interested in practical tools that parents and teachers can use with their children to emphasize the value of free speech. My teen and tween have totally bought in to the idea that words are violence. A common refrain is, "I don't have to have a discussion with anyone who denies my human rights." We talk about this all the time, but my talking isn't getting through. Suggestions?
It’s so disappointing to see this attitude in kids! Especially when this doesn’t occur naturally and it was placed there most likely by teachers or parents. My advice would be to spend some time talking about the real world. What most of the youth don’t understand is that they are often kept safe in their little bubble, but that bubble doesn’t extend everywhere.
Most people in the world actually suffer tremendously. Most people don’t have the luxury of thinking words are violence.
My father is from Cuba and fled communism, so I talked to my kids about that. They know that ‘the bad people’ took over Abuelo’s home & that’s why we can’t go there. And I also talk to them about the same bad people being here.
I think just reminding kids that they need to be grateful for what we have and recognize that what we have is actually quite rare. Even talking to them about the war in Ukraine is a good reminder about what hardship and violence really is.
I always find it very interesting to see people who fled real suffering come to the US and be so grateful and happy. And you see so many privileged people here who take everything we have for granted. They have no idea what true suffering truly is & I think we all need a good reminder of that!
Thank you for this! I'd also love to show them a movie about the Chinese cultural revolution and/or the French Revolution, to demonstrate that even "punching up" against elites can have horrific consequences.
This is, oddly, a wonderful sign of how much of a violence-free society we live in. Can you imagine Ukrainian children thinking "Words are violence" after being shelled by invaders and seeing their neighbors raped and tortured? Picture the folks who have to hide when warlords or drug cartels come to their villages having an anxiety attack over a difference of political opinion? How about the Uighur's living in concentration camps doing slave labor? Or Taiwanese parents watching enemy rockets pass overhead? Ask older folks who live in the former Yugoslavia about violence. Or those who witnessed the Rwandan genocide first hand.
Do not worry - this sort of thing is self-limiting. The folks who indulge themselves with this will not have the resilience to accomplish much and will die out. The pendulum is swinging already.
There is a truth to what you state. When we've had it so good for so long, even slight perturbations cause stress, because we've never learned to deal with them.
Our frame of reference towards what is violent/oppressive/Hitlerian/.... take your pick...is very detached from historical accuracy.
God forbid we ever get into a shooting war, we'd be completely lost.
That might be intentional. This trend is rendering a couple generations physically and emotionally incapable of functioning as soldiers. Who might benefit from such a trend? Is there any practical way for the folks who benefit to intensify or accelerate the trend?
I hope you’re right. Thank you for the encouraging comment!
Speech is not violence. Violence is violence. Democracies thrive when they teach the difference. Coerced silence only serves those of totalitarian bent.
I think people would do well to teach the classic formulation of free speech from Justice Brandeis in Whitney v California (1927). Brandenburg v Ohio (1969) explicitly overturned Whitney to further expand on the concept of free speech and what was allowed, namely that: The Court held that the government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action". it is talking about action here and not words.
But I really like the poetry and resonance of Brandeis's words to today's discussion about speech. "Those who won our independence believed . . . that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject. But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed."
Most aren't really experiencing a real threat, they've just been taught to equate political opinions they oppose with hate. Let's call it what it is, a giant Marxist power grab; demonize people you disagree with and call their opinions violence in order to silence them and others; AND IT'S WORKING! And it's not just college students who are experiencing this, this woke sickness is playing itself out in almost every work place in this country. It's also the product of identity politics and rewarding victim status. For years now the Democratic party has promoted this hateful and divisive silencing, canceling, bullying, and slandering of people who dare to stray from the leftist cult narrative. And as much as I'm no big fan of Trump, I have to admit that he's the only Republican that has had the stones to bully these bullies back. That was his appeal and I have to admit that I understand why he was elected. People are fed up with this campaign of Democrat inspired violent protests, urban violence, anti cop, anti male, anti white, and anti American hatred and division. I know I am!
Minor quibble. I looked up the "cry closets". They do not appear to have been set up for safe space from dissenting opinions. They were set up for students on the verge of a nervous breakdown from finals. They were in the library so that students who had been frantically studying for 10 hours straight could take a ten-minute break to curl up and be emotional, then get their shit together and return to studying. That seems pretty reasonable, honestly.
The "free speech" warning sign was hilarious and alarming and a sign of the times. It's like history professors needing to post trigger warnings. OBVIOUSLY history will include the distressing stories and subjects. OBVIOUSLY walking across campus will include encountering different opinions. But we have a bunch of privileged, entitled people who have been taught that the entire world should be arranged to their comfort at all times, and they have a right to advance warning when it will vary from this "norm".
Tim's Maxim: Everyone is mostly wrong about everything always.
Diversity of thought and diversity of perspective are how we learn. All of us develop explanations for the things we experience. We constantly try to make sense of the world. However, our experiences are limited, our perceptions are flawed, and our cognitive faculties are compromised in many different ways. Listening to diverse perspectives is the way we can each challenge our own theories about the world. Alone, I am severely limited in what I can experience and know. Alone to my own, unexamined thoughts I can be of little use to my community.
As an example:
Look up the work of Daryl Davis and his outreach to KKK members. He 'collects' robes from former Klansmen who have changed their ways. Mr Davis is a Black blues musician.
What is his secret to deprogramming Klansmen? He listens to them - actual listening, not scanning their argument to find a way to 'win.' He is very clear about not expressing agreement or approval for ideas that he opposes but he truly listens to them. When they feel heard they are open to change.
We need to raise a generation of Daryl Davis's not people who feel attacked just because someone else disagrees on which flavor of ice cream is best.
I've watched many interviews with Daryl Davis and his documentary, Accidental Courtesy, was incredible. He really is an extraordinary man.
Thanks. You had me at "blues musician", and reading about his method of engaging with others with opposing views is a major bonus. Thanks for the reference.
My concern as an American is simply this:
If the goal of the so called justice warriors is to eliminate all speech, symbols, or so called triggers that send them into a freency, search for the crying room, or demanding someone be silenced, and basically destroy the American foundation. Then eventually the country becomes weak willed and able to be told what and how to conduct themselves.
So you eventually play into the bullies hands, think China and Russia. Ask the Uyghurs or others how much tyrants care about your feelings? These same justice warriors will be the first for identification and re-education. See decent is not allowed and neither is your feelings and wants. You simply exist at the pleasure and choosing of the Government. So if they ever get their wish, I hope the last thing on their mind is, "What the Hell was I thinking"?
Your comment aligns well with mine above. Going further with this - this generation is almost unemployable. Ask HR managers (and professors) about their frivolous complaints.
A favorite: after working six months and being fully onboarded, a young employee complained that his supervisor was not complimenting him as much on his job performance. The supervisor did not criticize he just gave fewer compliments. The HR manager contacted the supervisor who was shocked to hear about this - he replied that while the employee was training he gave frequent positive feedback and encouragement but after the kid was trained on a task and did it reliably well, plenty of compliments about that task seemed superfluous. He still complimented the kid on other tasks, however.
Sigh.
My initial thoughts on your example is, the person never was involved in any teaming activities. Maybe Mom and Dad always made them feel so special. Real world is produce and be competent or move down the road. Pretty sure that person was never in the military also. Unfortunately the first thought of so many is, Me, me, me.
Yah. I am not sure about that guy - I heard that story from a relative who is HR director for a medium-size company. Although team sports these days is contributing to the trend of lavish compliments and participation trophies. The education system in America has gulped down the Kool-Aid to the point educators cannot label an incorrect answer "wrong" because it might hurt the student's feelings then they won't learn anymore. Geesh.
Other countries don't seem to have such fragile children - they criticize students severely and you know what? When America wants STEM professionals, we go to those countries to hire their college graduates with H-1B visas because our college graduates aren't as prepared as they are.
It's interesting that we are more honest on performance requirements and criticism of H-1B folks than on our own people.
Our family has the principal that the truth may hurt but it's the truth none the less. So far even the grandchildren get it and understand.
I see. So, you're sayin American companies hire foreign engineers, in part, because they are more resilient and can handle negative feedback. That makes sense. To be a good engineer requires experience and that includes making mistakes _and learning from them_. Anyone who pouts when their mistakes are pointed out won't become a good engineer.
Good engineering saves lives.
The driverless cars they design drive on our roads. We may use the cell phones they design in our emergencies.
The US is becoming a nation of wimps who run and cry whenever their feelings are hurt (see "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Haidt and Lukianoff). The people who will survive and prosper and lead in America are the ones who are willing to listen to others' opinions and either have the fortitude to change their own minds or the critical thinking abilities that are required to counter these other opinions. Open discourse is critical to maturity. I'm just glad I'm not a kid in the 21st century, and I'm thankful to have been raised to deal with these slights, which, in most cases, are very slight.
This is very reasonable and well-argued. As long as disagreements are civil they should be voiced. Not saying what one thinks does harm—and not just to oneself.
Life doesn't come with a trigger warning or cry closets... life is violence!! I feel unsafe and someone needs to do something!!! /s
In all seriousness, thank you for this piece!
Thank you for reading it!
Good column.
Here's one idea on how to begin the change you suggest: WWII movies and documentaries to be shown regularly in every grade from 5 through 12. Require children to see images of Nazi bulldozers burying dead Jews. Require them to see depictions of the D-Day invasions, the fire bombings, and the horrors of the Pacific theater. Make sure they watch films of Hitler's speeches as he was ascending to power and then taking control of a country. Require them to go to the DC Holocaust museum. Require them to see the pictures of dead soldiers on the beach, the burned out ruins of cities. Make sure they understand what real evil an violence looks and FEELS like.
The argument being made is that if only Hitler had been prevented from speaking, then the Holocaust would have been avoided. The conclusion is that ALL distasteful speech (distasteful being entirely subjective) should be treated as a precursor to mass murder. People trained this way FEEL like they are watching a proto-Hitler every time they hear something they disagree with.
Feelings are easily manipulated. People really can FEEL like they've been punched in the gut from words. People can FEEL under acute threat from a glance. Have you ever seen someone having an acute phobic reaction? The spider is harmless, but the person is reacting like it's a lion or a serial killer.
Don't focus on feelings, it's the strategy that got us into this mess in the first place.
My point is that those FEELINGS are overwrought and transient, and that only in learning how to recognize that and "getting past" them to critical thinking can we fix the problem.
People have been taught, over the last 40-50 years, that emotion is more powerful than reason. That needs to be "un-taught".
Yes, they're overwrought. However once an anxiety disorder is created, those feelings are not transient. The hormones and neurotransmitters flooding through the brain are the same as if they were responding to an actual threat. Watching videos of genuine war will reinforce this, not undermine it.
Exposure to things you are scared of generally helps you to overcome your fear, not reinforce it. I think your body and your brain begin to know intuitively that the perceived risk is actually not as dangerous as was first believed. Malcolm Gladwell gives many examples of this in his book David and Goliath. One that stands out to me is the example of the British in WWII being constantly bombed. The idea was that after the first few, they were rather insulated in spirit from the terror of them, feeling a bit invincible. Here is a quote about the panic from bombing that Churchill and others anticipated:
"The panic never came. The psychiatric hospitals built on the outskirts of London were switched over to military use because no one showed up. Many women and children were evacuated to the countryside as the bombing started. But people who needed to stay in the city by and large stayed. As the Blitz continued . . . the British authorities began to observe—to their astonishment—not just courage in the face of the bombing but something closer to indifference. ‘In October 1940 I had occasion to drive through South-East London just after a series of attacks on that district,’ one English psychiatrist wrote just after the war ended:
‘Every hundred yards or so, it seemed, there was a bomb crater or wreckage of what had once been a house or shop. The siren blew its warning and I looked to see what would happen. A nun seized the hand of a child she was escorting and hurried on. She and I seemed to be the only ones who had heard the warning. Small boys continued to play all over the pavements, shoppers went on haggling, a policeman directed traffic in majestic boredom and the bicyclists defied death and the traffic laws. No one, so far as I could see, even looked into the sky.’
https://djaunter.com/scared-to-travel/
Dweck's Growth Mindset and Jordan Peterson's observations about voluntarily facing fears to overcome them also come to mind when thinking about how people respond to fear and how their mindset when facing things matters.
That's true, but only if the people around you aren't reinforcing that it's terrifying and disabling. Deliberately, mindful exposure to spiders will cure a spider phobia, for example. Watching people around you scream and panic at the sight of spiders will create one.
Yes, I agree. A kind of learned panic, learned offense, learned “shock” at a “scandalous” opinion. Some are deliberately trying to instill these things
What a great article! About 18 months ago I read Jonathan Haidt's book, The Coddling of the American Mind, and was blown away by what was happening on college campuses, e.g. Safe Spaces, Crying Closets, et al.
You nailed it with your opening "Sticks and Stones..." and then continued to point out the nonsense of such a flawed ideology.
And with reference to words being "violent" - the word water doesn't make you wet - and until it does, we need to stop propagating such nonsense.
Thanks for writing!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and kind comment and for reading my piece!
I hope that others can see what you saw as well!
Thank you so much for a well reasoned and written article. As one of those old Boomers who grew up Polish Catholic we were always taught to return violence with love, turn the other cheek and all. As a retired college professor (1973-2017) I saw students change with the generations but this generation has me stumped. How did we learn to be so intolerant of opinions we disagreed with? I enjoy a good challenge from someone who hears things differently than I said them. It happens after sermons often. I am enjoying engaging young and old in the parish I serve on staff. God is good! Thanks again! Padre Dave
Thank you for your comment! I don’t know how we got here, but we all need to focus on how we get out of here! If one of us doesn’t have free speech, then none of us have free speech! I wish especially the youth could understand this.
There was a time when being offended was not just a legal justification for physical violence, but it was also expected you had to defend your honor against words. Men dueling over insults was a low point in western elitist society, and they knew it, which is why it went away. Now this is all about Marxism. It’s as simple as that - oppressed and oppressor.
This thread has gone far off topic. Certainly I am not blameless in this but it seems that the other topics should be discussed and considered in their own focused sessions. The Original topic raised by HDL merits a focused discussion without distraction.
So. I am "tapping out" so as to not distract from the key point raised in the OP.
❤️
I'm interested in practical tools that parents and teachers can use with their children to emphasize the value of free speech. My teen and tween have totally bought in to the idea that words are violence. A common refrain is, "I don't have to have a discussion with anyone who denies my human rights." We talk about this all the time, but my talking isn't getting through. Suggestions?
It’s so disappointing to see this attitude in kids! Especially when this doesn’t occur naturally and it was placed there most likely by teachers or parents. My advice would be to spend some time talking about the real world. What most of the youth don’t understand is that they are often kept safe in their little bubble, but that bubble doesn’t extend everywhere.
Most people in the world actually suffer tremendously. Most people don’t have the luxury of thinking words are violence.
My father is from Cuba and fled communism, so I talked to my kids about that. They know that ‘the bad people’ took over Abuelo’s home & that’s why we can’t go there. And I also talk to them about the same bad people being here.
I think just reminding kids that they need to be grateful for what we have and recognize that what we have is actually quite rare. Even talking to them about the war in Ukraine is a good reminder about what hardship and violence really is.
I always find it very interesting to see people who fled real suffering come to the US and be so grateful and happy. And you see so many privileged people here who take everything we have for granted. They have no idea what true suffering truly is & I think we all need a good reminder of that!
Thank you for this! I'd also love to show them a movie about the Chinese cultural revolution and/or the French Revolution, to demonstrate that even "punching up" against elites can have horrific consequences.
Ask them to define a "right". Ask them to list out what they consider to be "human rights".
Because most people have no clue. They confuse natural rights with civil rights, and can't elucidate on the basic nature of a "right".
I know I have to work very hard to show civility and common decency to a Biden supporter. Man, it can be exhausting...
Now that's a weird response...I guess you didn't read the article and went right to the comments to respond...