It's exhausting work, being offended all the time. But is activism actually ruining college kids' mental health? A report on the emotional state of Brown University student-protesters—who suffer from suicidal thoughts, sleeplessness, panic attacks, and failing grades as a result of their advocacy—paints a weirdly alarming picture.
Well, yes. But let’s ask the next question: Are the instructors and professors who encourage this perpetually exhausting condition – usually called “social justice activism” – doing so specifically to produce fatigue and neurosis in their students, or is that merely an unintended side effect? More, do the students seek out these undertakings out of a desire to be exhausted, or do they not know what they do – an easily defended proposition when one surveys the behavior of the young, immature, and coddled?
For my part, I try to avoid situations and phenomena that would exhaust, offend, or otherwise upset me. Perhaps my aversion is a logical consequence of being sixty-four years old, a Certified Galactic Intellect, and the Curmudgeon Emeritus to the World Wide Web. Or it might be a defensive tactic, to preserve what remains of my sanity. Either way, it puzzles quite a number of my acquaintances, who appear to take pleasure in becoming exercised over the inanities and lunacies of others.
Well, each to his own. (Chacun a son gout, as the French would say.) Now if you’ll excuse me, the voices have just told me it’s once again time to clean and oil all the guns.
I was way too busy partying, working, and studying (in that order), to be offended about anything when I was in college. Instead, I think I caused offense. Good on me!
ReplyDeleteFirst answer: it's an unintended side effect. I do believe that the instructors and professors encourage the outrage/offense, but I believe they're Machiavellian to one level less than it would require to be trying to produce these side effects. But then I'm a Pollyanna.
ReplyDeleteDo the students seek to be exhausted? No. As you say, they're young, immature, and coddled. But it will make life harder for them in the future because they have more self-created obstacles to overcome. And this thought could make me rethink my first answer...
I'm with you - I avoid the social static that makes me unhappy. I don't read or watch any news. I let Certified Galactic Intellects and lesser beings I trust filter it for me. ;-)
And I, too, sometimes relax by cleaning a gun. Lately, I've been trying harder to make sure they need it first.