A World of Their Own
3rd November 2015
Richard Fernandez turns over a rock.
The New York Times has a series of articles examining the causes of why an entire generation “has become less tolerant of free speech” noting the growing list of subjects or persons that are now banned on campuses to prevent people from freaking out.
In defense of this trend, a recent graduate from Brown explained that certain points of view were intolerable to people and they saw no reason to endure it. Therefore, a rising generation that simply wanted a “more inclusive and just world” has decided to exclude certain people and topics the way filters block unwanted signals.
Such “safe spaces” shouldn’t be disparaged as echo chambers she argues, but rather regarded as a form of air conditioning where the mental content can be maintained in a desired state. Surely no one can object to air conditioned rooms? Why not thought conditioned campuses? What they neglect to consider in the argument is the cost of air conditioning. All controlled environments cost money and quit working the moment power goes out.
The safe spaces they crave don’t exist in in the ambient environment. To maintain a “nuclear free” or “gun free” zone someone has to do the distasteful work of maintaining it. Probably some guard, soldier or policeman with a gun. Cafeterias and dorms have to be supplied with meat, fossil fuels and dirty pharmaceuticals; the wrong people have to be shown the door by the academic equivalent of a bouncer. All this takes labor and costs money.