Thread by @Noahpinion

1/I want to write a thread about this article about the campus "awokening".

I have two thoughts about it, which aren't really connected. But bear with me...

areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/lis…

2/This article is in a right-leaning magazine, but is more charitable to social justice kids than most such articles. It takes them seriously. As do I! And taking them seriously leads to some interesting places.

3/The writer, @darelmass, notes how the social justice kids very often talk about physical harm, physical fear, and physical safety. "We are dying" and "we are not safe" are common refrains, along with the word "violence".

4/But as Paul notes, the kids are objectively in little imminent danger. Violent hate crimes on campus are incredibly, incredibly rare. Paul has difficulty imagining what violence the kids might be afraid of.

5/Some of the kids talk about the negative long-term health effects that can result from social exclusion and marginalization.

But is this what the kids are really scared of? Elevated risk of heart attack decades down the line?

Maybe. But I think it's something else.

6/I think what the kids are really complaining about is not anything physical, but simply the mental and emotional pain of social exclusion.

And I think American culture (like many other cultures) tends to underrate and dismiss and trivialize mental and emotional pain.

7/Because physical injury is usually visible and easily verifiable, and mental/emotional injury is not, American culture often dismisses, trivializes, and even scorns the latter.

Think of George Patton slapping soldiers with PTSD.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S.…

8/Or think about how our health insurance system skimps on mental health coverage.

npr.org/sections/healt…

9/I don't know what it's like to suffer the social exclusion of racism or sexism.

But I have had depression, and it was far, far worse than any physical pain I've ever felt.

noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-few-…

10/Ever since I first got depressed, I had to deal with jackasses who told me to just suck it up and deal with it, patronizing people who told me to just cheer up, or polite, kind, well-meaning people who just had no idea what I was going through.

11/I imagine the mental and emotional pain of social exclusion from racism, sexism, etc. is somewhat the same in that regard.

A pain that people just don't believe in and don't respect unless they've felt it themselves.

12/So my bet is that the kids are invoking physical fear, physical violence, and physical harm because that's the only language they know that they feel will get campus administrators to take their pain seriously.

Because American culture is still full of George Pattons.

13/OK, so here's my second, mostly unrelated thought.

I think Americans expect too much out of college, as an institution and as a life experience.

14/Americans who go to college often come from towns and suburbs where they didn't quite fit in - where they were a little bit smarter or more intellectual or more liberal than others, or where they were excluded minorities, etc.

15/A lot of people - myself included - come into college with the expectation of "Now, everything will be different. Now I'll really find my people. Now the system will be on my side instead of against me. Now I'll live my Best Life."

16/And college administrators, knowing that this is what kids expect, generally do their best to provide that.

But at the end of the day, they're just a bunch of middle-aged career bureaucrats, and their power to create Narnia is limited.

17/College administrators can't undo a whole childhood worth of social exclusion. They certainly can't undo child abuse or other trauma that some kids come in with. And they can't make sure that every kid lives his or her Best Life.

It is simply beyond their powers.

18/Now, it IS probably true that administrators, who tend to be white, tend to optimize their Nurturing Environment toward the needs of people like themselves.

And this is certainly something they can and should (and almost certainly will) change.

19/But ultimately, I think American culture has to put fewer expectations on college as an institution.

It is not Narnia. It is not a crossover fantasy novel, where every nerd becomes a king. It will not necessarily be the Best Four Years of Your Life (TM).

20/So to sum up this fragmented, meandering thread:

1. American culture needs to take mental and emotional problems seriously.

2. American culture needs to lower expectations for what college can accomplish.

(end)