I went to college a normal amount of time. I graduated in 4 years like I believe you are supposed to and of the friends of mine that attended during that time, most of them did the same thing. I wasn't terribly involved in any extra-curricular activities when I was attending university, but I do recall the campus being an extremely peaceful thing. Every now and then some politician would stop by with a big one being when George W. Bush came by to give a speech. John Edwards came by once to give a speech as well and it was kind of funny how few people even noticed he was there. I remember walking to one of my campus buildings and saw about 20 people gathered on the library stairs with a podium at the top. I paid it almost zero mind because I was heading somewhere already and I hadn't hear anything about someone giving a speech. In retrospect it is amusing to me that this man, who would later be on a Presidential ticket as a Vice-President candidate, wouldn't be able to bring in more people than that but then again, I readily admit that the part of North Carolina that I live in and attended university in, is primarily conservative. Still though, you would assume he would get a larger crowd than 20 people.
My point here is that campus life in my days was relatively free of political action or social-justice type of activities that just seem to be all over the place these days. A recent story I read was about how a UNC (University of North Carolina) pro-Palestine group was making some rather extreme claims stating that violence might be necessary for their cause so this drew the attention of authorities and later it was discovered that the student group was receiving funding from Hamas.
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This group was part of a rather large clash in late April that resulted in dozens of arrests and many clashes with police as the students tried to take over the campus and put red paint everywhere to symbolize "blood on your hands." They caused a lot of damage also pulled down the American flag to replace it with a Palestinian flag. This resulted in the rather famous photo of some people that were labeled as "frat boys" protecting the American flag.
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I just kind of wonder what exactly has changed about the student mindset between the time I attended college, which was about 25 years ago and today: Is the world in a much worse place than it was back then or is the attitude of students just different?
I think a lot of the blame can be placed on social media because while we did have MySpace back when I was in college, it wasn't all encompassing the way that Twitter and Facebook seems to be among especially young people today. Perhaps when I was a student we could have been influenced by such technology as well. I'm not trying to suggest that we were somehow better than the youth of today and from what I see around me, there is just as much affluence on college campuses as there was in my day - so it can't really be economic hardships so much as it is the attitude of the people and perhaps, how they are easily manipulated by technology. This is just a guess because I can't notice much else that has changed other than access to information.
When I was in my 20's and in college, we would find out about events by word of mouth or by fliers that were posted on the campus. We didn't have access to real time updates on things that were going on and even if I had been a member of some sort of cause, if we were going to organize it would have been done primarily through land-line phones and answering machines. Basically, we wouldn't be terribly organized.
I just don't really understand why today's students are so angry and why they are using college campuses as a means of getting their point across. Before someone chimes in and states that college campuses have always been the scene of some sort of new notion or uprising, yes, I realize that is the case... but outside of very isolated incidents, these things rarely got out of hand. These days it seems like they regularly do.
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Was it Portland or Seattle or something like that which inspired people to set up tents on campuses and then make demands of the college? I didn't think I would see the day that we would have that going on here but we do. Thankfully it doesn't tend to last very long and certainly doesn't spiral out of control like it did in Portland where the protestors basically took control of a downtown area. I don't think that would be tolerated here in NC but the way things are going, you never know!
I honestly believe that the mindset of the average person is being deteriorated by social media, even though I don't actually participate in a great deal of it. I mean, how else do you explain this? I was in college during 9/11 and the subsequent invasions that took place after that and no one was doing stuff like this back then even though we now know that much of what was justified by the government post 9/11 turned out to be bad intel and the actions resulted in almost no one being better off because of it. Yet students weren't taking over campuses then and one would imagine that various groups like Hamas would have had the resources to fund student groups back then as well. Is it possible that these "alliances" never ended up happening back then because of the absence of social media?
I may get an "OK boomer" comment or two for this but I am extremely happy that I attended college 25 years ago and not today. These days it seems like campus life would be something that is borderline dangerous on a regular basis.
My 20th reunion is probably looming sooner than I'd like. I attended a community college. There were plenty of leftist groups and occasional loudmouths, but nothing got to the point of property damage or violence to my recollection. And that was at peak "W is evil." But I was busy being a student and didn't have time for activism or participation in anything on top of my credit load and commute.
maybe students should take harder classes so that they don't have enough free time to break stuff and inconvenience the lives of others. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to actually educate some of the extreme people in this demographic.
When I was a student, I was paying my own way to pursue a specific degree (drafting and design) instead of getting a free ride for post high school party time. Mindset matters. Colleges have been centers for protest and activism for a long time, but the current trend of mindless rage does seem to coincide with the era of degree inflation and federal subsidies for tuition.
Apart from not forgetting Occupy, it is worth noting that we have to go back to the sixties for such uproar on University campuses. Back then it was the war in Vietnam and the draft. My time, as yours, was quiet politically in that respect. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the world entered a period of global expansion and what was there there to get angry about? Anger is a justifiable feeling for these young people. I think they are already angry about their own future and they see (yes with the nakedness of social media) the unjustness being wrought on the people of Palestine. As we can see from the response of Israel, people who feel themselves to be justifiably angry can be very passionate for their cause.
I can see some logic in that but if I was them I think I would be a bit more angry about things that are actually going to impact my life such as the fact that it is damn near impossible for any young person to ever own a house in USA. I guess that is another thing that I am very happy that I luckily just happened to miss.
University students have always been seen as far left to some degree thinking they know better yet have no idea on life in general. I would hate my kids gong to university now after seeing what they have been doing. Social media is highlighting how bad things are.
I just wonder if any of these kids take a little time out of their busy protesting lives to actually attend classes and learn a thing or two?
While college is also far in my rearview I too can't remember anything like what is happening today going on. I had a few friends that were polar opposites of me politically and we just shrugged if off after talking sensibly to one another and then continued to be friends. I don't actually know what it is like these days but I have seen people have major falling outs because of political differences and that is just stupid.
I feel the same way about my college experience. There were a bunch of people that i totally disagreed with, even sometimes put bumper stickers on my car to get a rise out of them and instead of smashing out my windows they saw the fun in it and just laughed.
I find this to be true about a lot of demographics, especially left leaning. Not surprising that on campuses, which tend to be left leaning. The left has cleverly embraced both sides of this issue, the better to put us at each others' throats, even within their own party. Social cohesiveness of all kinds is being dismantled.
I have a theory. Folks who use electronic devices to get their information without allowing themselves time to think on their own, without their devices, are essentially cyborgs. All this strife is being managed electronically. Where better than among our youth?
I think that if someone has a "news app" and they get their information from just that about the world that yes, they are cyborgs. They just take it at face value and then when they look for follow up information, if they even bother, they have already likely gotten a few keywords into their search that will just lead them to more information that simply backs up what they just read, if they even bothered to look beyond a meme or a headline anyway.