52 in 25: #34 - The Coddling of the American Mind

This next book is something that I have read for “research” for a project I am working on.  And, I will say up front, it is excellent.  The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure was a New York Times Bestseller in 2018 by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.  In it, they focus on “Three Bad Ideas” which are plaguing younger generations today.  The first is the Untruth of Fragility: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker.  The second is the Untruth of Emotional Reasoning: Always trust your feelings.  The third is the Untruth of Us Versus Them: Life is a battle between good people and evil people.

 

I like that they have a methodical way of looking at this problem of how younger generations are “coddled” (over-protected).  They also call this “safetyism.”  They present the three bad ideas, give examples in part 2, explain how we got to this place in part 3, and then present examples of how to fix the problem in part 4.  I also like how they mentioned the criteria for the untruths: they go against ancient wisdom, they contradict modern psychology, and they do harm.

While their focus is on college campuses, the arguments go far beyond that.  I found myself nodding to much of what they wrote, save for the few times their obvious political leanings entered in.  I also noticed that there were multiple mentions of Buddha and other philosophers, but, as I noticed, only one mention of Jesus or Christianity.  On the plus side, that means that Christianity can be better infused in their arguments by someone else.

One thing I didn’t like is that, by the end, they started to advertise for a few things they are part of or they think are alternatives.  While I appreciated their explanation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, for instance, I could have done with a little less selling of it towards the end.  Regardless, I think this book has a lot of merits, and addresses an important issue that has probably only become worse since the book was published (*COVID*).  Final thought, I especially loved that they strongly warned against social media, the basis for so many societal ills today.