“That means seeking out challenges (rather than eliminating or avoiding everything that “feels unsafe”), freeing yourself from cognitive distortions (rather than always trusting your initial feelings), and taking a generous view of other people, and looking for nuance (rather than assuming the worst about people within a simplistic us-versus-them morality)”–Jonathan Haidt & Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind
If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the last ten years, you will have noticed some big changes on American college campuses: students shouting speakers down rather than listen to an opposing viewpoint, violent protests, rising rates of anxiety and suicide, and an ever increasing feeling amongst faculty and students of not being able to speak freely. What is behind this change?
Authors Greg Lukianoff (a first amendment expert) and Jonathan Haidt (a moral psychologist) believe there are three great untruths at the root of this phenomenon: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; Always trust your feelings; and Life is a battle between good people and bad people. These philosophies are in direct contradiction to basic psychological principles about well being.
As parents and educators embraced these great untruths over the past decades, they taught concepts of fragility and safetyism to children who have now grown up with an inability to see nuance and feel that anything that makes them feel uncomfortable is a threat.
If you are a parent, educator, or someone who is concerned about the increasing inability we have to work and live with people who hold different views, I highly recommend this book.
Content Advisory: Language (quoting people)