Andrew Wang

The Coddling of the American Mind​ by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt teaches me

why I should be skeptical of the culture of protection on many university campuses. The authors

claim the protection against potentially offensive ideas harms students by diminishing their

critical thinking abilities and by leading them to fall victim to common cognitive distortions such

as “mind-reading” and “fortune-telling”. Perhaps if I did not know how vindictive protectiveness

or safe spaces could harm my thinking, I would have joined the far-left camp and advocated for

these measures too. Instead of trying to protect myself, I should embrace the “face your fear”

mentality the article encourages me to adopt. Facing my fears, such as my fear of performing, in

small increments may eventually allow me to overcome my fear, whereas what I fear may leave

me afraid of performing for the rest of my life. This concept applies to controversial ideas on

university campuses too: if students learn to expose themselves to these ideas on a regular

basis, they may learn to accept, rather than feel attacked by new opinions. Chimamanda

Ngozi’s ​The danger of a single story​ echoes the benefits of listening to new ideas. Ngozi claims

if a person knows only one version or one story, they may not be incorrect, but they also do not

understand all the circumstances either. While I think new or controversial ideas may not always

be correct, it is more important to let them be heard. If I disagree with something, it is better to

practice arguing against it rather than forcing others to keep their thoughts to themselves.