In The Coddling of the American Mind book, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt set out to solve a social science mystery—What’s happening to Gen Z?
The Coddling of the American Mind movie focuses quite a bit on the role of social media, the decline of free play, and what Greg and Jon call “The Three Great Untruths.”
But Greg and Jon’s story also includes six “explanatory threads.”
There’s plenty more in this DVD Extra, but here’s some of what Jon has to say about the sixth thread, one that involves a new kind of justice:
Those of us from the 20th century, we had this idea of social justice as knocking down walls and barriers and obstacles and bringing everyone in—African Americans, LGBT, everyone is welcome. Everyone should have equal opportunity. So this was justice for my whole life.
But suddenly, in 2014, 2015, we have this new idea of justice based on an idea called intersectionality, which in its origin, and core is actually quite sensible, that identities are not just additive, that there are new features from combinations like being a black female. So the idea itself is perfectly sensible.
But we have a whole chapter in the book on how it is that intersectionality became the foundation of a way of thinking, where everything is group versus group. Everybody, every group is ranked on power, privilege, prestige. Those who are up are bad, because they are the oppressors, those who are down are good, because they're the victims heroically fighting back.
Check out More DVD Extras:
Jonathan Haidt on How Universities Foment Student Radicalism: “Their goal is to shape incoming students to be warriors for social justice”
How Stanford Teaches Students to be Fragile Victims — “Every remotely bad thing that happens to students could send you spiraling towards a mental breakdown”
"We Were a Bad Influence on Each Other from a Very Early Age" — Greg Lukianoff's Free-Range Friendship with Anthony Rodriguez
“Everyone’s Against Me. Everything is Dangerous” — Jonathan Haidt on How Gen Zers Have Been Taught to Fear Life
Stanford's Exclusive Approach to "Inclusive" Speech — Greg Lukianoff: Don't confuse "upper class white liberal ways of seeing the world with truth itself”
“Destroying What is Magical About a College Campus” — Jonathan Haidt on Microaggression Training
Bring Debate Back to Campus! Three Benefits Students Are Missing
Jonathan Haidt on the Rise of Intersectional Social Justice on Campus