Generation Snowflake

I chuckled when I read this article from The Sun:

A top British thinker has claimed young women are in the grip of a “hysteria” which has made them unable to cope with being offended.

Claire Fox, head of a thinktank called the Institute of Ideas, has penned a coruscating critique of “Generation Snowflake”, the name given to a growing group of youngsters who “believe it’s their right to be protected from anything they might find unpalatable”.

She said British and American universities are dominated by cabals of young women who are dead set on banning anything they find remotely offensive.

“It makes me sad that these teens and 20-somethings have become so fearful that they believe a dissenting opinion can pose such a serious threat,” Fox wrote in an article for Mail Online.

I have seen some of this in my own 18 year old daughter, but she also has enough backbone to stand up to me, so I don't worry too much about her. Plus my daughter doesn't take herself so seriously, having reasonable self-doubt for her age. She can grow out of this.

But other young girls? I think Claire Fox nailed it with her assessment.

When I was young, I had very little self-esteem. It was the nature of being young: I had no clue what I was doing. But I got older and figured things out, and self-esteem came with it.

Self-esteem without knowledge is like a car without windows. You may be able to drive it, but you can't see where you are going, so you are a bigger hazard, not to mention you won't get anywhere you want to go. Being able to value yourself when you really have little value yet is bass ackwards.

Even worse, our society has tied their self-esteem into political correctness. With political correctness comes value. Frankly, it is Orwellian. I picture the following scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers every time the PC police strike:



This is what is happening to our children, thanks to the government education establishment. While I believe honest parenting can counter most of this crap, it won't counter all of it, and you may find your daughter pulling a Donald Sutherland one day.