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http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trigger-happy-generation-1432245600

The Trigger-Happy Generation

If reading great literature traumatizes you, wait until you get a taste of adult life.

ENLARGE
Photo: Martin Kozlowski
.
By
Peggy Noonan
Readers know of the phenomenon at college campuses regarding charges of “microaggressions” and “triggers.” It’s been going on for a while and is part of a growing censorship movement in which professors, administrators and others are accused of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, gender bias and ethnocentric thinking, among other things. Connected is the rejection or harassment of commencement and other campus speakers who are not politically correct. I hate that phrase, but it just won’t stop being current.
Kirsten Powers goes into much of this in her book, “The Silencing.” Anyway, quite a bunch of little Marats and Robespierres we’re bringing up.
But I was taken aback by a piece a few weeks ago in the Spectator, the student newspaper of Columbia University. I can’t shake it, though believe me I’ve tried. I won’t name the four undergraduate authors, because 30 years from now their children will be on Google, GOOG -0.30 % and because everyone in their 20s has the right to be an idiot.
Yet theirs is a significant and growing form of idiocy that deserves greater response.
The authors describe a student in a class discussion of Ovid’s epic poem “Metamorphoses.” The class read the myths of Persephone and Daphne, which, as parts of a narrative that stretches from the dawn of time to the Rome of Caesar, include depictions of violence, chaos, sexual assault and rape. The student, the authors reported, is herself “a survivor of sexual assault” and said she was “triggered.” She complained the professor focused “on the beauty of the language and the splendor of the imagery when lecturing on the text.” He did not apparently notice her feelings, or their urgency. As a result, “the student completely disengaged from the class discussion as a means of self-preservation. She did not feel safe in the class.”
Safe is the key word here. There’s the suggestion that a work may be a masterpiece but if it makes anyone feel bad, it’s out.
Later the student told the professor how she felt, and her concerns, she said, were ignored. The authors of the op-ed note that “Metamorphoses” is a fixture in the study of literature and humanities, “but like so many texts in the Western canon it contains triggering and offensive material that marginalizes student identities in the classroom.” The Western canon, they continue, is full of “histories and narratives of exclusion and oppression” that can be “difficult to read and discuss as a survivor, a person of color, or a student from a low-income background.”
That makes them feel unsafe: “Students need to feel safe in the classroom, and that requires a learning environment that recognizes the multiplicity of their identities.” The authors suggest changing the core curriculum but concede it may not be easy. Another student, they report, suggested in her class that maybe instead they could read “a Toni Morrison text.” A different student responded that “texts by authors of the African Diaspora are a staple in most high school English classes, and therefore they did not need to reread them.” That remark, the authors assert, was not only “insensitive” but “revealing of larger ideological divides.” The professor, they report, failed at this moment to “intervene.”
The op-ed authors call for “a space to hold a safe and open dialogue” about classroom experiences that “traumatize and silence students,” with the aim of creating environments that recognize “the multiplicity” of student “identities.”
Well, here are some questions and a few thoughts for all those who have been declaring at all the universities, and on social media, that their feelings have been hurt in the world and that the world had just better straighten up.
Why are you so fixated on the idea of personal safety, by which you apparently mean not having uncomfortable or unhappy thoughts and feelings? Is there any chance this preoccupation is unworthy of you? Please say yes.
There is no such thing as safety. That is asking too much of life. You can’t expect those around you to constantly accommodate your need for safety. That is asking too much of people.
Life gives you potentials for freedom, creativity, achievement, love, all sorts of beautiful things, but none of us are “safe.” And you are especially not safe in an atmosphere of true freedom. People will say and do things that are wrong, stupid, unkind, meant to injure. They’ll bring up subjects you find upsetting. It’s uncomfortable. But isn’t that the price we pay for freedom of speech?
You can ask for courtesy, sensitivity and dignity. You can show others those things, too, as a way of encouraging them. But if you constantly feel anxious and frightened by what you encounter in life, are we sure that means the world must reorder itself? Might it mean you need a lot of therapy?
Masterpieces, by their nature, pierce. They jar and unsettle. If something in a literary masterpiece upsets you, should the masterpiece really be banished? What will you be left with when all of them are gone?
What in your upbringing told you that safety is the highest of values? What told you it is a realistic expectation? Who taught you that you are entitled to it every day? Was your life full of . . . unchecked privilege? Discuss.
Do you think Shakespeare, Frieda Kahlo, Virginia Woolf, Langston Hughes and Steve Jobs woke up every morning thinking, “My focus today is on looking for slights and telling people they’re scaring me”? Or were their energies and commitments perhaps focused on other areas?
I notice lately that some members of your generation are being called, derisively, Snowflakes. Are you really a frail, special and delicate little thing that might melt when the heat is on?
Do you wish to be known as the first generation that comes with its own fainting couch? Did first- and second-wave feminists march to the barricades so their daughters and granddaughters could act like Victorians with the vapors?
Everyone in America gets triggered every day. Many of us experience the news as a daily microaggression. Who can we sue, silence or censor to feel better?
Finally, social justice warriors always portray themselves—and seem to experience themselves—as actively suffering victims who need protection. Is that perhaps an invalid self-image? Are you perhaps less needy than demanding? You seem to be demanding a safety no one else in the world gets. If you were so vulnerable, intimidated and weak, you wouldn’t really be able to attack and criticize your professors, administrators and fellow students so ably and successfully, would you?
Are you a bunch of frail and sensitive little bullies? Is it possible you’re not intimidated but intimidators?
Again, discuss.
By the way, I went back to the op-ed and read the online comments it engendered from the Columbia community. They were quite wonderful. One called, satirically, to ban all satire because it has too many “verbal triggers.” Another: “These women are like a baby watching a movie and thinking the monster is going to come out of the screen and get them.” Another: “These girls’ parents need a refund.”
The biggest slayer of pomposity and sanctimony in our time continues to be American wit.
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Charles Harmon
Charles Harmon subscriber 5pts
Another excellent piece from Peggy - we expect no less. Spending too much time on british websites as I do, I see that this sort of feeble-minded nonsense has metastasized over there - another baleful cultural export from the colonies.
But reading the comments below is somewhat reassuring. Most Telegraph readers would respond similarly - not so the Guardian.
Bernard Levine
Bernard Levine subscriber 5pts

QUOTE: because 30 years from now their children will be on Google,

No. 30 years from now their children will be in the dumpster behind planned parenthood. 


Vilhelm Bjerknes
Vilhelm Bjerknes subscriber 5pts
" Anyway, quite a bunch of little Marats and Robespierres we’re bringing up"  
 I have no idea what she is talking about.  I googled them and still don't have a clue.They were involved in the French Revolution, but beyond that, I don't get the reference.
JAMES TEW
JAMES TEW subscriber 5pts
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And this could apply to the students, as well as to the people holed up in the hills, surrounding themselves in razor wire and guns.
Brian Mcneill
Brian Mcneill subscriber 5pts
Another good reason for me to over-weight my investment portfolio outside the U.S.


Mark Schneider
Mark Schneider user 5pts
Great article. Life is not "fair"or "safe". Deal with it.
KIMBERLY GRIFFIN
KIMBERLY GRIFFIN subscriber 5pts
LOVED everything about this article.   SPOT ON!
BOB DENBY
BOB DENBY subscriber 5pts
In the 1953 film, The Wild One, a girl asks Johnny (played by Brando) what he's rebelling against and he answers, "Whaddya got?
Bill Jackson
Bill Jackson subscriber 5pts
I'm sure that somewhere this editorial will be labeled as hate speech


Michael Hand
Michael Hand subscriber 5pts
As soon as we agree with the idea of "triggers," the whole concept of the first amendment is destroyed. Ms. Noonan has probably committed a microagression simply by using the word "trigger." Someone may be traumatized by that word. So, if we can't use words that could potentially traumatize someone, what words can we use? 

None.
Jerome Abernathy
Jerome Abernathy subscriber 5pts
As a proud flaming liberal, even I don't get this stuff.  I mean, I'm still dealing with plain old aggression.  A micro-aggression would be welcome relief, though I do understand their cumulative effect if your psychological skin hasn't been toughened otherwise  :-). 

I guess things have gotten so much better that kids are looking to eliminate slights that are so small, even they label them as "micro".
STEPHEN ROLLINS
STEPHEN ROLLINS subscriber 5pts
I remember the trigger of a woman who used to be beautiful looking away as I gazed at her. 
I no longer felt safe, and sought refuge in my room for my feelings and had a long discussion with a higher quality individual.  She is probably now a hag, if not dead.  Time heals many wounds.  
Allen Palmer
Allen Palmer subscriber 5pts
This is simply a case of having had a life of so much ease that matters like this become their biggest problem. Time to get real, wake up and get a job, and let the real world kick some sense in to her head. If she thinks her boss is going to be interested in her inner most feelings and fears she is in for a rude awakening. Some kid off the street is going to roll right past her on the promotion ladder and she is going to sit a cry about it. Whatever degree she is studying for she better change to a MRS, find a rich husband so she can say home and worry with her girl friends.
Scott Ries
Scott Ries subscriber 5pts
We know enough about treating trauma to know that avoidance- which is what a trigger warning is- makes traumatic anxiety worse. Exposure, and mastering the differnce between actual trauma and literary trauma, is part of the treatment. These "well intentioned" university officials are just reinforcing the  idea that avoidance is appropriate, and ensuring that th trauma becomes that much harder to treat.
David Cousins
David Cousins subscriber 5pts
I wish the news channels would use "triggers" when Obama is speaking. The trigger word would be liar. 
Frederick A. Green
Frederick A. Green subscriber 5pts
Aw, gee. Little princess feels unsafe in a classroom? Gracious goodness! Maybe the university should simply award her a degree without any more classroom work. We can't have students being traumatized in the classroom.

Maybe she should join the Army or Marines and see what trauma is really like. We're rearing a bunch of sissies.


platt safford
platt safford subscriber 5pts
  It may be true that everyone in their 20's has a right to be stupid, but in my early twenties as young Marine Corps Platoon Leader I wasn't given, nor did I want, that luxury. I think most young twenty somethings want that same level of responsibility.
 These kids don't dream up these notions on their own. Foolish adults put these ideas in their heads. They need to be held to account for their educational malpractice. 
Brian Mcneill
Brian Mcneill subscriber 5pts

They need to be introduced to Sergeant Hernandez, my 5'3" Puerto Rican Drill Sergeant. He was absolutely convinced that I was a Soviet agent sent specifically to destroy "his army." He employed all manner of "trigger" words to convey his displeasure at my bearing, my deportment, my performance, and my self-centered individuality. I got over it. I also developed my upper body through vigorous routines of 20-pushups, which he prescribed as a way of focusing my thinking.

Somehow, I survived, and contributed in my minuscule way to our winning the cold war and keeping the Warsaw Pact on its side of the trip-wire.  

I think we should find him, coax him out of retirement, and have him teach a 4-week orientation course at Columbia University. I'd be honored be his T.A.

Christie Hopkins
Christie Hopkins subscriber 5pts
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche 
Get with the program, sweetie.   Would you like some cheese with your whine?
The outlook of these deprived children is due in part to obsessive helicopter parents as well as liberal dogma.

David Tyler
David Tyler subscriber 5pts
@Christie Hopkins > “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”                 "That which does not kill us only makes us...  stranger."  -- The Joker.
Eric Brown
Eric Brown subscriber 5pts
These easily offended students have no chance of succeeding in the real economy.  Permitting them to believe otherwise is failing in our duty to educate them.
ERIC LISKEY
ERIC LISKEY subscriber 5pts
@Eric Brown They have no intention of succeeding in our "real economy". They only intend to get their PhDs and become social studies professors. 
Jack Lord
Jack Lord subscriber 5pts
Can something akin to the National Socialists' "Degenerate Art" Exhibition be far behind?
David Bryan
David Bryan subscriber 5pts
Safety and freedom are opposing goals, so how are we to handle things when you want safety, and I want freedom? 

If someone feels giving up their freedom is that path to safety, that is their business, but I reject the notion that I should give up my freedoms to allow others to feel a false sense of security.
Stephen Ormond
Stephen Ormond subscriber 5pts
Silly me.  I thought one of the main purposes of higher education was to challenge students' comfortable presumptions about all sorts of things.  The solution would appear to offer a trigger free course.  It would sound like a Quaker meeting.
Paul Maakestad
Paul Maakestad subscriber 5pts
Noonan writes: Life gives you potentials for freedom, creativity, achievement, love, all sorts of beautiful things, but none of us are “safe.” ... It’s uncomfortable. But isn’t that the price we pay for freedom of speech?
She should make this point to her editorial staff peers in the context of their position on the Patriot Act.
Speech isn't the only freedom protected under the Bill of Rights.
David Tyler
David Tyler subscriber 5pts
@Paul Maakestad  > She should make this point to her editorial staff peers in the context of their position on the Patriot Act.                 I couldn't possibly agree with you more.
William Treadway
William Treadway subscriber 5pts
The logical conclusion of a generation brought up on trophies for simply showing up and the delusion that ones unique and valuable "identity" is a treasure to be valued above any shaping by experience or tradition.
Flash: Your mom probably cares about your identity and your happy place. The rest of us, not so much. We are just waiting (and waiting and waiting) for you to grow up, recognize the fact that while you may be unique the issues you experience and the solutions thereto are not and move past gazing at your navel. You may have the potential to be valuable but, right now you have a lot more to learn than you do to teach.
Chris McKee
Chris McKee subscriber 5pts
I saw this sort of thing coming 20 years ago while I was a young professor. It was debilitating to the learning process and completely wasteful of time.  I left teaching after 5 years, disgusted.
DAN  M WESTMORELAND
DAN M WESTMORELAND subscriber 5pts
Rich kids with mind numbing stupid parents and teachers are creating paranoids. If they grew up as most of us 65 years ago and had to help raise their siblings, go hunting and fishing to help feed the family, carry papers, sack groceries, pump gasoline, wash cars, unload boxcars, roof houses, repair cars, go to war, and other things such as work-- I said work-- their way through college--they wouldn't have time to worry about themselves. I am ashamed of many of this younger generation but I understand that many have never been challenged. On this Memorial Day lets remember the young men and women that gave their lives in service. Most of them were even younger than these crybabies Ms Noonan is talking about. It's the rich and spoiled that do not serve. They can never know how they are wasting their lives--on them selves.
David Cousins
David Cousins subscriber 5pts
@DAN M WESTMORELAND " help raise their siblings, go hunting and fishing to help feed the family, carry papers, sack groceries, pump gasoline, wash cars, unload boxcars, roof houses, repair cars, go to war, and other things such as work-- "

Aren't these jobs that no one wants anymore?
DAN  M WESTMORELAND
DAN M WESTMORELAND subscriber 5pts
@David Cousins @DAN M WESTMORELAND I was sure glad to get them. That is a small partial list as well. There were no alternatives unless you were born to a family with money. All of us did the same in those days. At my age now the sense of accomplishment cannot be replaced. I would expect the young people that are discussed here will have a difficult time  maturing and never feel fulfilled. In addition to these richer kids, I would expect the poor of today that grow up with subsistence furnished by the government will experience similar self pity. No one wants these jobs because they can eat and drink without a job...not so years ago.
JAMES SORENSEN
JAMES SORENSEN subscriber 5pts
These are the most pathetic creatures I've ever read about it.  I thought it was  parody piece at first.  After surviving in my turbulent 60s/70s youth what today would be considered multiple  catastrophes and eventually having a wonderful family and life through old fashioned HARD WORK I can only say to these spoiled brats who live in our ridiculously soft society; "GET A LIFE".

oh and It reminds me of what Father Duffy would say in high school when we asked "Give us a break", he would say "OK, one in each arm". 

Wonder how that would go down today?
Don Zunker
Don Zunker subscriber 5pts
" The op-ed authors call for “a space to hold a safe and open dialogue” about classroom experiences that “traumatize and silence students,” with the aim of creating environments that recognize “the multiplicity” of student “identities.” "
====
Correct me if I am wrong, but if you have a safe space to discuss what is bothering you, won't that space become the space you just left?

Won't all of the things that bother you and others become a discussion of what is bad about what a professor is teaching you?

And if you step on a crack in the sidewalk, on your way to class, what kind of angst will that trigger?
Edward holman
Edward holman subscriber 5pts
For those who suffer the unbearable lightness of caring deeply, freedom appears to be over-rated.  In their colony, ideological order is paramount.  I wouldn't be surprised if they organized in cadres around political officers to enforce PC purity.  Maybe they already have and that is what we are looking at.  But where do they go from here?

Cheer up.  It's an old affliction.  Like Ebola and bush meat. 

"The principle feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things—war and hunger and date rape—liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things. . . . It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal. - P. J. O’Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. Give War a Chance, Introduction (1992).
Edward holman
Edward holman subscriber 5pts
For those who suffer the unbearable lightness of caring deeply, freedom appears to be over-rated.In their colony, ideological order is paramount.I wouldn't be surprised if they organized in cadres around political officers to enforce PC purity.Maybe they already have and that is what we are looking at.But where do they go from here?
Cheer up.  It's an old affliction.  Like Ebola and bush meat. 
"The principle feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things—war and hunger and date rape—liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things. . . . It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal. - P. J. O’Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. Give War a Chance, Introduction (1992).
Greg Ursino
Greg Ursino subscriber 5pts
I suspect at least 95% of the worlds population would fall to their knees and thank God if the most scared they were on a daily basis was this
Eric Stacy
Eric Stacy subscriber 5pts
C'mon down on the shop floor for six months or more.  First, you'll make good money, and second, you will see exactly what Peggy is talking about.
Don Zunker
Don Zunker subscriber 5pts
@Eric Stacy  Don't I know it well... 500 fellow employees, bosses, general labor, welders, machine operators, engineers, and more... and a lot of them think they are the most important employee on the factory floor... the entire place would come to a grinding halt if not for their mere presence... and thin skinned too...

I've noticed these people don't last very long...
Leonard Rothbart
Leonard Rothbart subscriber 5pts
@Eric Stacy That makes me wonder if part of the problem is, with companies moving operations overseas over the past 20 years, America has very few "shop floors" left anymore?
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