ATTIC CHILDREN

What happens to children raised in total unwarranted acceptance and bubble-wrap security when they emerge from their helicopter homes and go into the world of differing ideas and evaluated labor? The predictable answer is: Some do well; some turn into thumb-sucking whiners. This is the spectrum of students on today's Euro-American university campuses. This has surfaced as a raucous conflict between Left and Right rages on some once-serene campuses. However, there are also deep psychological and behavioral issues involved.  

Some universities have made an administrative choice to pander to whiners. A viral You Tube video of a Yale professor, being verbally assaulted in an aggressive and sometimes threatening manner by some female students while their compatriots circle him in the manner of a shaming ritual, illustrates my point. I must say Professor Doctor Nicholas Christakis of Yale is profoundly patient with this gang-bullying behavior, and thus he may be part of this emerging problem on campus.

A person who has not been suitably socialized as a child has no boundaries. Part of teaching socialization is punishment for socially unacceptable behavior. An affectionately nurtured child perceives simple disapproval as punishment. Withdrawal of approval and affection by a consistently approving and affectionate nurturer creates the anxiety which imprints the lesson on the errant child's brain. Think of an attentive adult pet who just walks away from a kitten or puppy who crosses a line in aggressive play. The young animal often freezes and watches the older animal leave, as if in stunned disbelief. A lesson learned on a very primal level. 

I worked for a decade with violent mentally ill people on psychiatric wards. In poor state facilities and wealthy private ones. As a nurse in charge, I was responsible for the various behavioral treatment plans of individuals, while maintaining the therapeutic nature of the community at large. Our goal was always to socialize people who had lost their social bearing due to brain dysfunction, developed outside the hospital for a variety of genetic, biochemical and/or environmental reasons. 

My work was performed when our Western societies were more compassionate toward the mentally ill. Rather than expecting mentally ill patients to live on the street, in shelters or in prison, the psychiatric community of my time, over a quarter of a century ago, believed that providing a residential environment which was safe, yet disciplined, was a living laboratory in which individuals could recuperate, develop new coping mechanisms and eventually return to their lives, minimally medicated. 

And, for those incapable of making that return to society, some hospitals, labelled "chronic" derisively by propagandists, actually provided a secure non-urban haven with a bed and three meals a day. I believe the propaganda against psychiatric hospitals, which led to their near extinction, was a nexus between the self-centered interests of elitist psychiatrists/psychologists, politicians, real estate developers, taxpayers, pharmaceutical companies and non-profit corporations like shelters and halfway-house providers. 

Why am I going on about this? It's simple. The behavior exhibited by some young people on college campuses and in public is simply regressive beyond the boundaries of acceptable young adult behavior. Safe spaces, trigger warnings and banned speech were common treatment elements on psychiatric units in my time. Micro-aggression was dealt with on psychiatric units quickly because there it would often escalate to physical violence. So, I ask, are our universities becoming expensive psychiatric units for a dysfunctional generation of coddled and improperly socialized youth? If so, what does that say about the meaning of "progressive" in politics, associated with this trend? What is the meaning of "social justice" in this context?

A society passed over to helmeted attic children with college degrees will fail. They will not be equipped to deal with the inevitable stress of aging and social adjustment within real-life human conditions outside their personal control. They will be as bad, if not worse, at parenting as their parents were. This is a prediction of overall social deterioration as population booms and resources dwindle. Ten billion screaming narcissists will not keep the lights on, the water running, the sewers clear and the streets free of violent crime.