Teen anxiety, depression, and suicide rates have risen significantly in the last few years. Universities are no longer places where the free exchange of ideas can take place. Online anyone can be shamed or cancelled for saying something well-intentioned, as long as someone interprets it uncharitably. More problems could be noted. Many people sense that things are worse than they usually are, and they seem to be getting worse.
How did this happen? Greg Lukianoff, a First Amendment lawyer, and Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist, provide some insightful answers in their book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up A Generation for Failure. Neither of these authors are Christians, but there is a great deal of truth in their book. In what follows, I want give a brief overview of their book.
In Part 1, the authors explain what the “new culture of safety” that has marked college campuses since 2013 is, summing it up with 3 Great Untruths. “Untruths” are problematic beliefs that need to be rejected. The first untruth is, “the untruth of fragility: what doesn’t kill makes you weaker.” The second is, “the untruth of emotional reasoning: always trust your feelings.” The third is, “the untruth of us versus them: life is a battle between good and evil people.” All of these “untruths” qualify are problematic, according to the authors, because they “contradict ancient wisdom,” “modern psychological research on well-being,” and “it harms the individuals and communicates who embrace it.”
In Part 2, the authors spend two chapters looking at these “untruths” in action. In the first chapter, the authors look at the “shout downs,” intimidation, and violence that mark many college campuses, how “speech as violence,” and how all of these realities are harming the mental health of students. Secondly, they look at the sociology of witch hunts and how it is leading to chaotic situations on more and more campuses.
In Part 3, the authors unpack six realities that they believe explain the significant changes happening on many university campuses. The first is the “rising polarization and cross-party animosity of U.S. politics.” The second is “the rising levels of teen and anxiety and depression.” Much of this, the authors argue, is due to the impact of “screen time,” which is especially hard for young girls. Third, parenting practices have changed, with parents becoming more fearful and overprotective, even as their kids have become safer. Fourth, the loss of “free play” and “unsupervised risk-taking,” has contributed to these “untruths,” since kids need both of these things to become self-governing adults. Fifth, the growth of campus bureaucracy and expansion of its protective mission has had problematic consequences, since colleges and universities are now multiversities that are more like businesses that believe the “customer is always right.” Sixth, the increasing passion for and redefinition of justice, where “equal outcomes” are sought, which multiplies injustices in the name of removing injustices, have harmed the next generation.
In the final part, part 4, the authors make recommendations for families, universities, and the society. In short, the authors encourage the next generation, and those influencing the next generation, to “seek out challenges (rather than eliminating or avoiding everything that ‘feels unsafe’),” “free yourself from cognitive distortions (rather than always trusting your initial feelings),” and “take a generous view of other people and their arguments (rather than assuming the worst about people within a simplistic us-versus-them morality).”
Lukianoff and Haidt’s, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up A Generation for Failure, is filled with fascinating, insightful, and provocative arguments. No one I know thinks things are headed in a great direction. There are a lot of views as to why this is the case and how to fix it. I think this book is a must read for anyone trying to make things better.