A SAFE SPACE?
Life is a constant tension between the desire to explore, to
take risks, to be adventures and the desire to stay safe, secure, and well within
our aptly named ‘comfort zone.’ The way our lives pan out largely depends on
how we manage this tension. Absolute safety is impossible, we are all born into
a risky environment,[1] life
being both perilous and ending in death.
A few years back when I was working as a clinician and
manager, running therapeutic groups which sought to assist clients with serious
long term mental health problems. When we discussed the literature describing
the nature of the groups the Director wanted to describe the groups as a ‘safe
space.’ “I certainly hope not,” would have been an appropriate response,
however my response was more nuanced, and I demurred. For a ‘safe’ therapeutic
group would be about as useful as a chocolate teapot. A therapeutic group
requires the right element of challenge, of risk, if it is to have any hope of
facilitating change. The best we can ever aim for is ‘safe enough.’
These thoughts are prompted by an article in The
New York Times concerning the growing demand that universities, of all
places, protect students from damaging or harmful views. This not only
represents an extremely serious threat to free speech it also undermines the
whole purpose of further and higher education. College is a place for encountering
challenging ideas, differing beliefs, opinions and theories. Once you start
stuffing cotton wool into student’s ears, to ‘protect them’ against ‘trauma,’
the education process dies. Put another way, - ‘People ought to go to college to sharpen their wits and broaden their
field of vision. Shield them from unfamiliar ideas, and they’ll never learn the
discipline of seeing the world as other people see it.’[2]
The growing bandwagon of the ‘safe space/no platform for’
crowd is based to some extent on the absurd notion that ‘acts of speech or pieces of writing may put…[students] in emotional
peril.’[3]
The result as the NYT’s piece argues is infantilised students wholly unprepared
for the passionate and conflict ridden reality of the wider world. The damage being done to academic rigour and
the intellectual growth of students both here and in the US, all in the name of
imagined ‘trauma,’ is considerable. Young people need to be very quickly
disabused of the idea that you can cocoon yourself from uncomfortable, disquieting,
and even ‘dangerous’ ideas. In short there can be no immunity from the random
cruelties of life, no right not to be offended or have your views attacked or
ridiculed. Its reality, it sucks at times, but that’s just tough. As I say the
best we can ever aim for is ‘safe enough.’
