Part of the Ronin’s Pilgrimage, Musha Shugyō, is to know courage and honor. The other side of that is the vast majority of people who will never know either. I have to believe that is a terrible thing. The Pilgrimage is just another way of saying ‘Hero’s Journey’ Which appears, one way or another, in all cultures through all time. That means it’s bone deep, it is a part of us. To never achieve this is to live a failure at the level of your genes.
And yet now, as I write this, it is December 2016, and the elite university students of our country are so disturbed by the victory of Trump that they have to be comforted like spoilt children.
Wall Street Journal: “Colleges try to comfort students upset by Trump victory…despair over Clinton’s loss prompts ‘cry-in’ at Cornell; Play-Doh for the distraught…Dozens of students at Cornell University gathered on a major campus thoroughfare for a ‘cry-in’ to mourn the results of the 2016 election Wednesday, with school staff providing tissues and hot chocolate.”
Just as a caterpillar has to pass through certain stages and overcome obstacles to become a butterfly, so too with humans. Character is only partially inherited. It’s potential is there, but it will only come into being under faced hardship. Apparently this isn’t something taught at Matrix University.
PJ Media: “…the University of Kansas reminded students via social media of the therapy dogs available for comfort every other Wednesday…’People are frustrated, people are just really sad and shocked,’ said Trey Boynton, the director of multi-ethnic student affairs at the University of Michigan…There was a steady flow of students entering Ms. Boynton’s office Wednesday. They spent the day sprawled around the center, playing with Play-Doh and coloring in coloring books, as they sought comfort and distraction.”
This is so grotesque that I have to put more down.
At campuses across the country, students begged professors to cancel classes and postpone exams, citing fear, exhaustion, and emotional trauma. Such accommodations were often granted. Academics at Columbia University, Yale University, the University of Connecticut, and other institutions told students to take some time to come to terms with what had happened, as if the election of Donald Trump was akin to a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Law students at the University of Michigan were provided with a post-election “self-care with food and play” event, complete with “stress busting” activities like play dough, coloring books, Legos, and bubbles. Columbia University’s Barnard College offered hot chocolate and coloring. The University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution, created a healing space: more coloring books, and also puppies.
These gutless nothings are going into debt for an “education” that can’t even prepare them for an election result they don’t like. This is what happens when you have “safe-spaces”.
I would rather that my grandchildren attended a learning/training institution where there were dangerous spaces. I would want them challenged body, mind, and spirit. If you have had trouble staying with my obvious lack of political correctness, this is the time to spam out and unsubscribe. Because it gets worse.
George Orwell was so correct when he said that: “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
So why talk about this? Because on your Journey you will pass through and mingle with such as these. They vote, and are an ever increasing part of your environment. They are the operational definition of what you don’t want to be. Take them seriously, and never forget they are there. Let them be an inspiration to your efforts to achieve excellence. You never want to be like them.
Live the Journey….. Musha Shugyo