Better in their words…

Some of the best letters I’ve read in a long time…
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WSJ 4/28/2017

A ‘Snowflake’ Blizzard Buries Free Thought

In “Those ‘Snowflakes’ Have Chilling Effects Even Beyond the Campus” (op-ed, April 22), Heather Mac Donald suggests the source of “snowflake” behavior among millennials on college campuses comes from a cultural orientation that is contra-Occidental and that students view themselves as victims of a Western, capitalist, racist, heterocentric, gender- insensitive society. I’m an educator who sees college students every week. “Snowflake” culture has been incubated in a primordial ooze much more toxic: a very Western, very capitalist cocktail of consumercentric messages.

Many students view themselves principally as customers. The campus environment is a thing to be purchased and, like a purchase on Amazon, should meet the customer’s expectations or be sent away, instantly, with free return shipping and a full refund. We used to be participants and contributors; now we are customers and critics. This change of attitude is not unique to the university campus. It can also be seen in health care: “I paid for you, doctor, and I expect you to prescribe the opioids I seek. I’m not getting what I want out of this relationship. I’m the customer, I’m not paying you to be called an addict. I’m a victim. I’m in pain. What do you mean a referral? I’m leaving a bad review on Yelp!”

This kind of shallow, entitled, needlessly adversarial, accusatory exchange is not rooted in some anti-Western leftist hate campaign originating on college campuses. Instead it originates in the cheap postwar, one-liner bits of philosophy we’ve chanted together, phrases like “the customer is always right” and “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” If these are the big ideas in society, don’t be surprised when the customers start squeaking.
KARL T. MUTH, PH.D.
Northwestern University Chicago

It’s worth noting that the very “human rights” that campus protesters clamor for derive from the writings of enlightenment thinkers such as John Stuart Mill, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, Voltaire and many others, virtually all of whom were white males. Also worth mentioning is that the enlightenment philosopher who wrote the immortal words “all men are created equal” was himself a white male, albeit a slave owner. Prior to these white, male contributions, concepts such as human rights and equality played little, if any, role in human civilization.
MICHAEL STERN
San Antonio, Texas

How are these “snowflakes” going to get jobs after graduation? What business wants to hire a myopic thinker who is intolerant of others not like themselves and not willing to consider change? Maybe the professors all need to start preparing these snowflakes for their future jobs by teaching them the words: “Would you like fries with your order?”
RICHARD LARUE
Orlando, Fla.

White men need to recognize that the current campaign on campuses is a win-lose game in which their role is to lose, to be as Heather Mac Donald observes, “the targets of a pervasive discourse that portrays them as the root of all evil.” Game theory teaches that win-lose games are unstable because sooner or later the designated loser stops playing the game.
JAMES G. RUSSELL
Midlothian, Va.

Poor critical thinking and an inability to understand history are at the root of this cultural temper tantrum. Try to find a tribe or nation in the last 5,000 years that has not at one time or another played the role of both oppressor and oppressed. The true tragedy here is the loss of a real history education and professors too poorly trained to provide one.
THOMAS O’HARE, PH.D.
Boston College School of Social Work Boston