Ancient Greeks understood much about suffering. Imagine the horror of those primitive lives without smartphones, social media, online shopping or trigger warnings — and only tough, old philosophers to help with your mental heath issues.
They couldn’t have done it!
This is the solution, better than their teachers or modern students. About 2,400 years ago the polymath philosopher Aristotle wrote about ‘catharsis’ — meaning the way in which seeing a tragedy on stage can terrify you and make you weep, yet in the end help release your emotions and come to terms with them.
Today university academics defy their principal function of being educators, by trying to shield students from everything that may upset or trigger the delicate.
Reading University is the latest victim of ignorance lunacy, which betrays higher education’s very concept. There, officials have decided to cut several lines from an Ancient Greek satirical poem by Semonides of Amorgos — a rather poor, but interesting squib that likens female ‘types’ to certain animals.
Nowadays, academics at universities betray their primary function of being educators and seek to protect students from any upsets or triggers that could affect the delicate dears (file photo)
The decision was made that students of first year classics should be kept from reading the few sentences that describe domestic violence.
I was able to find his Types Of Women and decided for myself. It was the one that compared a woman with a dog. . . by knocking out her teeth with a rock’
Or the part where a woman is likened to a donkey — ‘used to getting smacked’? This is a crudely misogynistic film, but it’s a product of history.
Although the department didn’t receive any complaints, the decision to ban the Ancient Greek woman-hater was based on its desire to protect students from potential triggers or upset.
It is obvious that most normal and sensible people don’t pay much attention to this nonsense. Many people don’t even know what the term “woke” means.
But make no mistake — it really matters. It is because our teachers, the cultural establishment, and civil servant have all been influenced by false ideas that will harm future generations’ intellectual and emotional health.
Nowadays, universities routinely send trigger warnings to students about any courses or texts that they think might anger or upset their paymasters.
This is an appalling act of dereliction, whose results we are still not fully aware. It is impossible to study any subject if it triggers painful memories, disturbs your sensitive senses or makes you feel sad. If you fear that what someone else thought or did might make you feel inferior, how can you learn about the history of ideas?
To return to Aristotle’s idea of catharsis, the moment you are deeply moved — even shaken to the core — by a work of literature or philosophy or any other art is the moment you are made to confront fundamental, timeless truths about our shared humanity.
So if you see a play such as Medea (by Euripides, describing Medea’s murder of her own children); or Oedipus Rex (by Sophocles, featuring incest, suicide and self-blinding); or (nearer our own time) Shakespeare’s Macbeth (multiple murders, including of children) or King Lear (madness, mutilation by blinding and murder), you will be put in touch with the worst and best of human nature — and learn from it.
To return to Aristotle’s idea of catharsis, the moment you are deeply moved — even shaken to the core — by a work of literature or philosophy or any other art is the moment you are made to confront fundamental, timeless truths about our shared humanity (stock image)
This is undoubtedly a crucial part of education.
Because censorship is rampant among the wokerati and words are often censored, I suggest that all trigger warnings on any subject be censored. We can ‘cancelize’ wimpish warriors and worriers, and teach young people to be brave and real.
It is not necessary to warn people that this or another issue could upset them. On the contrary, they should be told that responding emotionally to art and ideas and history is good — and even better if it makes you angry.
It is important to discuss strong ideas and feelings, rather than be afraid. Wanting to be “protected” is a sign weakness and decadence. . . And it is all around us.
Although it is possible to have sincere concerns that people should not be upset, this can still be justifiable. This was something I learned about just before Christmas, when The Girl Before on BBC had a storyline that involved stillbirth.
The heroine, Jane (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw), had had a stillborn child — and its emotional fallout formed a significant part of the plot line. Surprisingly, however, I received an email from a female friend saying that she wanted to make sure I had not been too triggered by this story.
Although it is possible to have sincere concerns that people should not be upset, this can still be good intentions. This was something I learned about just before Christmas, when The Girl Before on BBC had a storyline that involved stillbirth. Gugu Mbatha–Raw from the series.
She meant well — but what did she mean? It could be that I was upset because my second child was stillborn. It could have simply been that I felt moved to tears by my empathy. It doesn’t matter if it was upset, which I didn’t. But, I would feel a deep sense of emotion. This is a testament to the ongoing reality of long-ago loss.
Sadness is intrinsic to human experience — and should not be distanced from us by labels.
We all experience grief, pain, and fear from the time we are born. Empathy can also be called being “triggered”.
When trigger warnings result in people shrinking back to say, ‘Oh, I won’t watch this/read this because I might be upset’ — they close off their minds and hearts to their fellow human beings, like tortoises pulling in their heads.
It was shocking to see this post from a magazine executive on Facebook: “The term child abuse in my Saturday column apparently led a woman to contact her psychiatrist in the middle the night.”
She tried to talk to the editor about my horrible act of writing those words. This absurdity is obvious to all of us, but how do we react when someone object to something that’s been featured only recently in truly disturbing newspaper headlines.
There has been much written about the poor state of American universities. We know that students are lying when they claim to have been triggered by the presence of someone challenging their ideas. After a Rod Liddle talk, Durham University students protest.
There has been much written about the poor state of American universities. Students who say they’re triggered simply by being around a speaker that challenges them are pathetic.
Sixties anger over Vietnam war was triggered by feminist academic stating obvious facts about biology. A male can’t ‘become’ biologically female no matter how he/she believes he/she is.
It’s only getting worse.
However, it is far more important that they are assisted and supported by people who should guide them to common sense of inquiry and reasoning. It should surely ‘trigger’ outrage that teachers and university authorities routinely support students in their rabid anti-intellectualism, prejudice and fear of being challenged.
They actively encourage indifference and flabby cowardice instead of encouraging resilience.
Our cultural elite conspires to close minds. This is an unfortunate modern tragedy.