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 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 868, April 17, 2016 We have a terminal case of government
Forget My Generation.
Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise Back in 2007, I wrote a two part essay titled "Is There Hope" (Part 1 and Part 2) where I discussed the frustrations that I had when I tried reaching the people in my generation and convince them that freedom and not government was the answer to creating happiness and prosperity. At the time I thought there wasn't much hope for my generation. It's interesting how I can look back on my previous work and see not only how my writing has progressed, but to see how my opinions have evolved as well. I no longer think that my generation, which according to the information that I have gathered is Generation X, is the worst. Not by a longshot. The one thing I can say about my generation despite how misguided and naïve they were in their world views at the time, they were at least for the most part respectable towards my views, even though they may have seemed completely off the wall to them. Hell, when we had a class project where we were supposed to pass fake bills through a mock congress, I created a bill that overturned about 99% of the nation's gun laws. While the whole class thought that I was insane (some even said it to my face), they didn't try to shout me down or retreat to their "Safe Spaces." This could also have to do with the fact that this occurred at what is now called Lonestar College, which is actually an entire network of community colleges with several different campuses. Not the most ideal place for student activism. Though I can't say that I had too many bad experiences at the downtown campus of UH. For the most part I had professors who understood that their job was to educate and not indoctrinate. The only exception to this rule was when I took some kind of multi-culture course for teacher certification. There I was told that I was privileged, since I was a white male. Aside from the blatant insult of being told that everything that I have had to work for in life was actually given to me because of my race, I felt very uncomfortable being the only one in that class that had the "White Male Privilege" label. I would later drop the course, since I already had a full work load anyway. Other than that particular class, my experiences with UH were for the most part positive. I know that's not necessarily the case for students with conservative and libertarian views who have been shouted down or censored for having views that don't match the accepted dogma of campus Social Justice Warriors. The sad part is that it seems as if things have gotten worse since the last time I attended college. It seems as if all the twenty-somethings from the Millennial generation have taken the so-called "right not to be offended" to whole new extremes and it actually makes them seem as if they have become a parody of themselves. The best example of this is the "Safe Space", a place where college students go whenever there is a guest speaker that says something that offends their sensibilities. A place where the students can make sculptures out of Play-Doh, blow bubbles, paint pictures or watch a TV set that shows images of puppies, kittens and rainbows. No, I'm not kidding. What is even better is that professors now have to provide trigger warnings if their lesson plan involves words such as rape. When I first heard about this, I thought for sure that these instances had been made up by a conservative or a libertarian satirist. It makes me wonder how the hell these kids are going to survive the real world, once they leave college. Eventually they are going to have a boss that asks them to do something that is less than pleasant. I am pretty sure there are not going to be any trigger warnings or safe spaces to hide in. For that matter they aren't going to be able shout down their boss every time he says something that may offend their sensibilities, which brings me to my next point. At Yale the student council wanted to rid the campus of offensive costumes during Halloween, so they called for students to have their costumes inspected by the council. The head school master rightfully pointed out the absurdity of the council in an email and was forced to confront a student mob of the Easily Offended because of it. At one point the head school master found himself shouted at and even cursed at by some entitled princess that thought it was the job of the head school master to create a place where everybody felt safe as opposed to creating an intellectual environment. I can't even comprehend talking to a college professor like that, even the one who told me that I was privileged for being a white male, much less a head school master. I would love to see that little princess pull that same crap with her boss, once she goes out into the workplace. The only "Safe Space" that she will be able to run to will be her own apartment. That is until she is unable to make rent, then her only safe space will be her parents' basement, until they get tired of her apathy and kick her out. What was even sadder was the fake petition circulating the same campus that called for the abolition of the First Amendment. The students were only so eager to sign away one of our most fundamental rights. Yes, it is now official. My generation is definitely not the worst. Then we have that insanity going on in the Missouri campus, where the students forced the University president to resign since he didn't move fast enough in addressing the problem of phantom racism on campus. The reason why I say phantom racism is because the only evidence we have of anything remotely racist occurring on the campus is a Swastika drawn out on the wall with human feces, which is a sign that I am not even sure how to interpret. Once the campus gave into those lunatics, they came up with an entirely new set of demands. Now the patients are officially running the asylum in the University of Missouri. I do have a solution for all the entitled and easily offended twenty-somethings that can't handle anything that they would deem unpleasant. We should form an organization where we can employ ex-drill sergeants like R. Lee Ermey and maybe some notoriously harsh critics like Simon Cawl and Gordon Ramsey to go to these campuses and lay into these candy-assed Millennials so they can finally learn a thing or two about humility. They obviously aren't going to learn from their parents, who probably coddled their kids by making sure they got a participation trophy for every competition where they came in last. We sure as hell can't rely on campus administrators to put these little pansies in their place. So I think the only true way to save this generation is to toughen them up by sending ex-drill sergeants and harsh critics to invade their safe spaces and tear their sensitivities to shreds. Who's with me?
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