Sun Tzu Didn’t Encourage Coddling or Cuddling

A colleague recently forwarded me a somewhat dated article from The Atlantic entitled, “The Coddling of the American Mind,” which explains a new breed of political correctness is gaining momentum on American college and university campuses.  The student-led movement is driven by an avert desire to avoid the “triggering” of negative emotional responses, whether in lecture or during student-life.  Though conceived surely with the best of intentions, the movement is devolving into a monster that would repulse even Victor Frankenstein (“Accursed creator!  Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?”).

Indeed, as the article explains, during the 2014-2015 school year, the deans and department chairs at the ten University of California schools were presented with examples of “microaggressions,” defined as “small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought as a kind of violence nonetheless.”  Such inflammatory rhetoric included, “America is the land of opportunity” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job,” two pillars of the U.S. identity.

Maybe former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight should have yelled "trigger warning" before turning his chair into a projectile. 

Sun Tzu, the Chinese military strategist and philosopher stresses the importance of “know[ing] yourself” in the “Art of War,” while cautioning “if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”  As evident from The Atlantic article, a certain portion of college students are sadly unaware of the qualities that made – and make – the United States an economic and political superpower.

Capitalism, for all its faults, is the superior modality for producing economic and political growth, yet its success demands persons challenge convention and embrace competition.  American icons like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, Martin Luther King, Jr., Walt Disney and Steve Jobs recognized this – they pushed limits, suffered setbacks and pressed onward.   The idea that college campuses must become “safe spaces” “where young adults are shielded from words and ideas that make some uncomfortable” is a direct affront to American capitalism.  General George S. Patton said it best when addressing the Third Army, “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.  Americans play to win all the time.  I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lose and laughed.  That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war, because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.”

Are there times when sensitivity is required?  Absolutely.  “Zero tolerance” policies are needed to clamp down on bullying, both in the school yard and on social media.  Triggering warnings are necessary on forums where victims of traumatic events, like sexual assault, gather.  But to apply these practices perpetually serves only to promote a culture of emotional, intellectual and likely physical weakness.  “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”  Proverb 27:17.

If future generations of Americans desire to compete in the ever-expanding global workplace, this movement must be abandoned, and replaced with Sun Tzu’s teachings.  The strength of the United States and American capitalism rests not in its political correctness, but in its immigrant past, where men and women strove to create better lives for themselves and their families.  And to their credit this they achieved, but the younger generation owes it to the “tired . . . poor . . . [and] huddle masses,” who worked in the coal mines, steel mills and textile factories to build this nation, to advance their legacy.  The United States is the greatest country on earth, but “uneasy lies that head that wears a crown.”