martes, 1 de septiembre de 2015

Nuestra patética sociedad antiséptica

"The new protectiveness may be teaching students to think pathologically".
No puedo estar más de acuerdo con un inquietante artículo publicado en The Atlantic, de donde tomo la frase anterior. El texto se titula How The Coddling of the American Mind y agrega a modo de preámbulo: "In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health". Es un artículo extenso pero merece ser leído con calma.

Esta sociedad antiséptica que hemos ido construyendo es lamentable y puede terminar siendo nuestra perdición. Coincide mi lectura de este texto con mi reencuentro con Bradbury y 'Fahrenheit 451'. De las páginas de esa visionaria novela comparto un fragmento que viene a cuento:
"You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't that right? Haven't you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these. [...] Coloured people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book."

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