No Safe Spaces, Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph
I had wanted to see the movie, but it was not widely available, so I bought the book. I am still wondering what happened to the movie. It simply disappeared with no explanation.
The book is a bit disorganized and also repetitive, in a way that a movie might have been able to make more palatable, since the visual would show the actual events described, that were not always fully presented to the public with their full impact, by the media. While it presents all the different ways the use of a safe space has morphed into a safe space for only a chosen few, it doesn’t present much that is new or offer widely applicable solutions. I believe the book is in need of some better editing, and the ending seemed inconclusive. It left me nowhere, basically looking for more input and insight, perhaps a suggestion for improvement.
Overall, the message is one of common sense. There are no safe spaces for alternate opinions since the demand for safe spaces, by definition, forces those ideas outside the safe space. The book recognizes that coddling children prevents them from ever maturing and becoming productive, responsible adults. Not everyone deserves a trophy, but everyone does need to learn both how to win and how to lose, how to compete and how to achieve, how to fail and how to succeed, how to accept and/or tolerate someone else’s beliefs, even when different from one’s own.
Schools of higher learning have stopped encouraging the discussion of ideas that some find distasteful, creating safe spaces only for those who feel threatened or challenged by new ideas. All others are denied the same rights and privileges and often have their rights dismissed and abused. There is little tolerance for the opposing ideas of others if they make one uncomfortable.
I was left wondering if the atmosphere would change and get more open or if the future would be overrun by men and women unable to accept anyone or anything that didn’t agree with them completely, thereby shaming and demonizing all opposition, preventing any possible growth of new ideas and creating an atmosphere of even less tolerant behavior, thus preventing the cultural advancement of civilization.