Like a snowball that's made of millions of snowflakes, it is set off rolling down a steep hill and grows as it gains speed. So too, there is a growing phenomenon occurring on campuses around our nation today that is gaining the attention and concern of many. And that is the recent growth of student led campus groups which are exercising a modern form of fascism.
These groups are more correctly identified as 'Bias Response Teams' who's purpose is to suppress free speech. At the University of California - Riverside, the team's logo reads, "Not in R' House - No Room for Hate". If anyone, or any group of students, say or do anything which they deem is obnoxious, repugnant, rude, or is disliked, their objective is to communicate to the rest of the student body at the school to avoid them, or worse, attempt to silence those who are saying these unacceptable remarks or comments.
Our latest example which made the news recently was the "shout down" at Middleburry College in Vermont. How is it that 18 - 21 year olds have come to believing that this is the best way to deal with any kind of thing they disagree with? My personal theory stems from having taught a few short years at the middle-school level of public school.
This theory consists of many layers, or factors, which have contributed to this phenomenon, but I shall focus on the few I believe are the dominant ones. Over the past several decades the family unit has been hit hard but two dominating influences; single parent family households, and the growing social acceptance of entitlement.
I would venture to say that about 90% of single parent households consist of the mother and however many children went with her after a divorce, or the father leaving the home for whatever reason. (Drugs, infidelity, cowed by the spouse to an intolerant level, etc.) This has been due to the traditional social view by the judicial system that children were better off with the caring mother, than the over-bearing, or disciplinarian father.
With the mother having to work at whatever job she could get, or keep, it was all she could do to expend energy on providing enough resources to feed and cloth her children. When it came to the point of their growing older and more defiant, women with the skills and fortitude to maintain control and set expectations are rare, and the children usually won that battle. Without a "team player" of a spouse - the absent male - the task has more often than not been too much to handle. Then too, we can't ignore the reality of the "live-in boyfriend" issue most likely negatively influencing the family dynamics.
The entitlement factor has grown over the last couple of decades from the increasing role of government in providing subsidies, or welfare, to these often disfunctional families. We have seen the cell phone (Obama phone), flat screen TV, car and gaming console to be considered "necessary" by most low-income, or poverty level communities across the country. This mindset has gradually fostered and emboldened these children growing up to know only these circumstances, but not understanding that it was a result of millions of other hard working individuals and family members working hard to pay their ever increasing taxes from year to year.
This attitude of entitlement was witnessed in my students of the 8th grade Science classes I taught at a bedroom community school district which had a service area that was predominantly low-income. Gradually their concept of "rights and freedoms" morphed out of their entitlement mentality to a belief that they were allowed to do anything they decided was in their interest. (Standard, common moral concepts of right and wrong were not part of their upbringing either.) Disrespect for authority, cheating on exams, and general social obnoxious behavior were considered normal.
While this is usually considered typical for adolescents, it has remained dominant for a growing proportion of younger generations moving up through high school due to the attitude of "safety in numbers" and their unwillingness to take on responsibility as a young adult. This, as I see it and understand what's developed over the last eight years with a figure who's been a "role model" for them to idolize, has brought us to an emboldened youth in college today that believes they are in the right to do what they believe is remaining true to their ideology; some would argue, new religion. It gives them a sense of superiority while belonging to a group as a young adult venturing forth into the "big bad world" of those who, in their minds, view things in a biased, racist, bigoted way.
And they are going to save the world from all the evils that their elders have set upon them! The sad thing is, since public schools rarely teach students anymore - and if it does most students don't pay much attention to it - the truth about the meaning and significance of our U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights which includes the freedom of speech being protected; whether they like what they're hearing, or not.
P.S. For further proof of this phenomenon occurring at college campuses around the nation, visit this link and pay specific attention to the last paragraph of the article.
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