I was having a conversation with a customer yesterday, who brought to my attention that a couple of universities in the UK had now banned clapping as a form of applause, under the grounds that it could bring on anxiety.
At first I thought this man is obviously dribbling stupidity right in front of me, but on further investigation this indeed turns out to be some sort of fact and is just another restraint applied among the thousands of other political correct madness` forced upon young people at universities.
It`s hard to list the damage these numerous thinkings and ideas can do when actioned. Obviously each one must be taken at it`s own merit, but the overall protective mentality that is now rife within our universities will do untold damage. What at first seems a thoughtful albeit for a small minority, protective act is a dangerous precedent to carry forward.
True progress of humanity throughout human history always come at the odds with the establishment. The problem being is that the current mentality and political correctness is fast becoming the establishment. These students within the next few years will be the people running our massive industries, they will then become part of the establishment.
To young people not brought up within university life, this will seem alien. These young people will be the new anti establishment rebels. Rebelling to change the then established way of life, where apparently everyone is included. Sadly this is not true of human nature.
If you can look far down the path on which we are now travelling, we are now trying to cure and isolate anxieties and victimisation as opposed to preventing them happening in the first place, by making individuals stronger and better educated. What we seem to be doing is heading towards an idyllic world full of automatons without individuality or cultural history.
We are now separating the educated wealthy from the poor. Like we always have done. Only before the separation was finance and privilege which was aspirational and enabled some individuals to cross into the other stratosphere via hard work and not a little bit of luck. In other words there was always hope.
Sadly the new University led cultural divide is much greater, and worryingly much more alienating and frustrating for those young people on the wrong side. Inevitably this brings even greater unrest between the new establishment and what will be the new rebels in our society.