How The Perpetually Aggrieved, Protesting College Students Come Across To The Rest Of Us

The "child-centered education" chickens are coming home to roost.  But, university students, you don't have to be this way:

The little emperors have grown up. The babies of the late 90s – mollycoddled by their parents, spoon-fed by their teachers, indulged by society – have now reached university. Some of the brighter ones are now at Oxford, demanding that the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel should be torn down, because of his imperialist, racist views.

We shouldn’t be so surprised. If you’ve had a lifetime of people saying “yes” to you, of never being told off, you remain frozen in a permanent state of supersensitivity. I wasn’t offended by the Rhodes statue when I was at Oxford 20 years ago. But, even if I had been, I wouldn’t have thought my wounded feelings should be cured by tearing apart the delicate fabric of a beautiful university.

Universities are reaping the whirlwind of two decades of child-centred education. That whirlwind has imported imbecilic trigger warnings – when academics have to warn students that western European literature, from the Iliad on, is full of sex and violence. It has also brought the pernicious idea of “no-platforming” – when students refuse to give a stage to anyone who doesn’t fit with their narrow view of the world. 

Our inclusive society, which only came into being because of the First Amendment, has been developing--and even improving--for the past 225 years.  We don't live in pre-revolutionary France, and you don't want to be the revolutionaries--even Robespierre eventually got his head cut off.

There are more important things in the world than your personal feeeeeeeeelings.

If you won't accept my wisdom, accept my Jedi mind trick (does small, "circle-y" hand movement):  This is not the society you want to destroy.