Don't bury your head in the sand
The entire generation that is responsible for highjacking college campus culture, does more harm than good for society as a whole. You know the one. The ones that dub any unflattering opinion as a "micro-aggression". The kind that focus on arguing the minutia of what surnames should be included on some arbitrary form while simultaneously allowing for a possible Trump election. Don't get me wrong, we should all be sensitive to each others issues, but over sensitivity breeds contempt as well as inadequacy. We need to be able to have thoughtful conversations about a slew of tough topics in order to work through issues. Allowing for this inconsiderate hostile takeover of free speech where we walk on egg shells to the point where we can't effectively communicate with one another, will lead to too much being left undone. An inefficient lack of progress.
There's an argument to be made for the potential abuse (for lack of a better word) of free speech and the possibility of opening the door to possible bigotry, which is probably why we wound up so extremely left of this PC issue in the first place. - But without allowing for these open discussions you're stifling ideas, which is a disastrous thing to do. Even for bad, hateful ideas. Anyone harboring such negativity will, whether we "allow" them to or not, express them. Not allowing for this free expression and taking this 'ostrich's head in the sand' approach, opens us up to two distinct possibilities:
- They find a more hostile 'pent up frustration' way of expressing their ideas.
- We allow for these unchecked detrimental ideas to percolate beneath the surface and spread right under our noses.
We're losing the battle of ideas because we're not having any. We can't expect anyone to see the error of their ways and faults with their thinking, without us helping them to do so. Like it or not we're all in this melting pot together. Benjamin Franklin said it best: "Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither". Lets not continue to sacrifice the liberty of free speech and ideas for the presumed security of burying our heads in the sand.
~Tuesday 03.15.16 @ 7:47am