The reason why the young people today are so preoccupied with safety is that they are the generation that will experience the workplace as a succession of part-time gigs. These gigs will carry no benefits or long-term employment prospects and all of them will be about instability and insecurity. This is the reason why the young people feel so unsafe but they don’t know how to articulate it.
We have not taught the young people to discuss these issues in any other language than that of personal trauma. Aside from a vulgar pop psych jargon, we haven’t given them any vocabulary to explain the world. This is why the crucial discussions about precarious employment and the changing nature of work are not happening. Instead, we are looking for “individual solutions to global problems” and aggressively colonizing the public spaces with mattresses and spillovers of private woes.
Clarissa's Blog 
This makes a lot of sense to me. My girlfriend directed me to this post because it reminded her of some things I said recently in regard to this matter. One of them was that it seems to me that colleges, as institutions, are using this now as a form of scapegoating — by drawing attention to this, they’re drawing attention away from the fact that colleges are now a business and, like any business, lie to their students, not giving them the information they need to “consent” to this form of education. This includes not informing them of the working conditions of the single-use faculty and not informing them of their own job prospects. As in any unhealthy relationship, the students can tell they’re being deceived, but are kept from having vocabulary to talk about it, and the energy is shunted into this discussion / safety culture (which, unfortunately, also is fueled by real crimes being committed against people).
My girlfriend and I saw “The Hunting Ground” recently, and I couldn’t help but think about how even this documentary, which has some pretty damning things to say about administrators, could leave someone thinking that this is the only instance where legitimate concerns are covered up, just to keep the money pumping through and keep the mask on straight.
Further, being in a position at an institution where the more power you have, the less responsibility you have (certainly from the student’s perspective) only adds to this. It makes sense that this culture (bully culture, more or less) will reproduce itself in relations among students, so someone who commits rape or assult will usually be protected, even by other students — they attempt to display their power and then are protected from responsibility.
Seems to me that no amount of admirable efforts from students regarding the actual problem of assault and violation of students on campuses can succeed as long as the institution is a culture of lies, deceit, and intellectual violation. If you’re floating in the middle of the ocean, trying to empty the ocean with a bucket is not going to improve anything.
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Or even simpler: they’re just echoing their parents’ fears.
If you’re going to link safe spaces with unvocalized employment fears (of college students; blue collar workers dealt with unstable no benefit part time gigs much sooner), you have to go back at least 35 years. What you’re seeing would simply be a racheting of those concerns.
Based on that theory, you should see an increasing amount of fearfulness until you get to the class of 2020 for example, (2 year olds at the time of 9/11, collective freak outs have sustained effects on your psyche.) It is acceptable to have a vague fear of terrorism and a vague fear of unsafe spaces in a way it is not to have a vague fear of economic insecurity. Concrete steps are shunted aside in favor of showboating gestures, and often people get very angry at the idea they have to even have a discussion.
[Apropos of nothing: These parents got angry because a school event made them feel uncomfortable. Their kid saw an entire dress rehearsal and said nothing to them. It’s a much bigger deal now that the parents went to Fox. ]
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“blue collar workers dealt with unstable no benefit part time gigs much sooner”
“Based on that theory, you should see an increasing amount of fearfulness until you get to the class of 2020 for example, (2 year olds at the time of 9/11, collective freak outs have sustained effects on your psyche.)”
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Organisers at a National Union of Students Women’s Conference have asked that those attending the event use ‘jazz hands’ instead of clapping, because it is ‘triggering anxiety’.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/03/if-students-cant-cope-with-clapping-how-can-they-deal-with-clubs-festivals-and-protests/
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