The 21st century has brought with it a rapid time of social change.
Voices that have previously been silenced are suddenly being heard. Those who were disadvantaged in the past are now able to express their views without the threat of being marginalized or ostracized for their opinions.
Sam Balas
Argonaut
Yet, with this new and exciting time comes the unexpected and unfortunate side effect of narcissism. The college student of today expects his or her views to be respected, which is not a bad thing, as everyone is entitled to their opinion.
The problem is when people act out irrationally when their reality is challenged. This affects almost everyone, left or right, rich or poor. We saw it at San Francisco State University, when student Cory Goldstein was accosted by an African-American student who took issue with Goldstein”s hair.
Goldstein has dreadlocks, a natural hairstyle that has been around for thousands of years, dating all the way back to Ancient Egypt. The woman felt that Goldstein was wearing a style of hair that appropriated her culture, and demanded that he changed his style.
Frankly, the student had no right to demand Goldstein change his hair – it”s part of his body and dreadlocks have been a staple of multiple cultures.
It is the duty of the faculty, staff and student body of a school to ensure that no student fears for their well-being. But physical safety and discomfort are different things. College should challenge students in how they see the world.
A high school student is a child, a college student is expected to be an adult, and one of the most important aspects of being an adult is realizing that the world is a complicated mess that is rarely accommodating of an individual”s needs. It is in a parent”s nature to raise a child within the frames of their worldview, and college is a time for those worldviews to be challenged, perhaps even proven wrong.
This is a difficult and uncomfortable process. We often feel as though the way we have been raised to think is the only correct way of thinking, and to learn information that contradicts this challenges how we think about the world.
Yet, that”s the beauty of college. By stripping away all that we think we know about the nature of life, we discover who we really are. This process is so vital that when we try avoiding it we are setting ourselves up for real societal problems.
Look at the rise of Donald Trump, whose entire political career is dependent on the narcissism deep within his supporters. Because Trump speaks what they perceive to be the truth, they are infatuated with the man, refusing to acknowledge any of the criticism he receives as legitimate.
Though Goldstein”s accoster and the average Trump supporter come from exact opposite ends of the political spectrum, they have in common the dependency on acting out based on what feels right and not on what makes reasonable and logical sense. College is a time where those irrationalities should be challenged. Instead, I fear we might be moving toward a society where they are considered legitimate.
Sam Balas can be reached at [email protected]