Writing at American Compass, Michael Brendan Dougherty does a long screed on “safetyism” which he defines as follows:
America’s shift toward a culture in which the sacred value of safety trumps other practical and moral considerations (snip) has led to child-rearing practices that “prepare the road for the child” rather than “preparing the child for the road.” Instead of building character we build massive bureaucracies to deal with all the complaints that we’ve taught young people to emit at the first sign of discomfort, which they conflate with peril.
Dougherty strongly infers the cause of this phenomenon is the decline in our nation of shared religious beliefs. He actually could be correct about that. If one believes our life here and now is all there is, then defending and hanging onto it with might and main makes considerable sense.
The article gets a bit long and stuffy but there are good ideas hidden in all that verbiage if you can stick it out to the end. I conclude the only people who can safely speak (and write) their minds today are those who, like me, are out of the education and job market for good, in other words, retirees.
