The Snowflake Epidemic
The last few years have brought into being a lot of problems in how people view the world and each other. It has also ushered a great many young people into a more self-centered view of life and how life should treat them rather than how they should assimilate into society. The prevalence of the social malady seems to hover primarily over institutions of higher learning but some of it is starting to infect the high school places of education.
A ‘snowflake’ is a delicate bit of the world that cannot take the heat. Heat is a reality so after a short-lived moment in the sun, it melts away. Well, we have a preponderance of such swarming college campuses these days. They are delicate creatures who take offence to anything that doesn’t agree with their adolescent view of the world and their place in it.
The human ‘snowflakes’ take every thing very seriously. In one event, someone chalked the name ‘Trump’ in chalk on some college campus steps. They had to call in counselors to deal with this. Calling the college maintenance and having them hose it down would seem to be a less anxious option. Then, when too many ‘things’ brought distress to our young students, they demanded a manner of speech restraint so any dissidents against what they wanted to believe would not interfere with a dose of reality. Unfortunately, teachers and professors stood by these tender people and encouraged them to stand their ground. Of course, taking time to protest, took away from study time, and then some had to demand special favors in the grading of their exams like nothing less than a C and forgoing the exams entirely. If there were any pre-med students in the mix, kind of makes one worry about future medical attention in case your ailment was covered in the cancelled exam.
When the anxious voice of the students wasn’t adequately attended to, they demanded and actually were given ‘safe spaces’ where it had to be all sunshine (not the global warming type!), flowers, and good thoughts. Trying to impart a grain of truth into the mix would get you promptly banned from the ‘safe space’.
It is a worrisome phenomenon and doesn’t bode well for the future. Showing my age but when I graduated from just high school, we were considered adults and capable of actually getting a job, supporting a family, or going to college or trade school to learn something for a career. The thought of taking “Literature of the Ancient Druids”, “Comparative Analysis of Main Streaming
Gorillas Into Society”, or “Godzilla: Fact or Fiction” would have been laughed at as how would that further a viable career. Okay, I exaggerated my examples but I imagine there a few in the sacred reality of the scholastic system that would rival them.
Gentle introductions of conversation that even have a tinge of disagreeing with the snowflake generation causes them anxiety. Various people have gone out into the streets to see what young people actually know/understand about the country they live in and the results were abysmal. This is our future and they have no idea of the past and how we arrived at this point in life. They want a feel good/hash tag sort of existence. Morality gets in the way of their freedom so an abortion-minded throw away existence is in place today. Commitment is a cause of anxiety because ‘what happens if they change their mind’ so living together is a beautiful option – never mind the impact of any resultant children of such unions that are allowed to live. The recent resurgence of socialist offers in the Democratic campaigns plays right in to these students lack of knowledge and their ‘me, first’ mentality. Free college for everyone? Do they understand the mechanics of providing such money? Would their professors start working for free in order to possibly make this a viable option? Equality for everyone financially is not a true option. When the masses start realizing that they get the same as everyone else does even though they are working and being taxed and the “enlightened’ snowflakes are living off the land, would they continue to work?
But I get ahead of myself in the grim forecast of the coming future. Most of these young people are still in their parents’ home and already living off the land. So, has a bad economy without enough jobs been fueling this travesty of living? Bad example of hardworking parents? Or, a government who would like to be dominant in our lives and make them dependent on other people’s earnings seem the more worthy of the world. In any event, things are not looking all that rosy if you are able to leave your safe space and study the matter. History repeats itself and, well, when you learn about social justice versus understanding the realities of society and justice . . . history repeats itself.
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