Critical Thinking: Why Do Some Students Need Counselling After They’re Exposed To Different Viewpoints?

It seems as though it is not uncommon for a speaker to be interrupted when they give a talk at a university. When this happens, it might have a small effect on what they have set out to achieve, or it could be far worse.

During this time, someone like this could wonder what is going on and they might even start to think about if their life is under threat. They will have come to a university, and it might even be prestigious one, yet it could be as though they have gone to a war zone.

Out of Control

There can be people who are making noises while they are trying to speak, as well as those who are chucking things around. They might even lose the ability to speak to the whole audience; that’s if the equipment that they are using is destroyed.

It could be said that this is the kind of behaviour that often takes place in a school playground, but that doesn’t mean that it is acceptable. These people are going to be at university; a place where people go to expand their mind.

Times Have Changed

Or to be more precise, there was a point in time when this was the reason why people would go somewhere like this. Nowadays, it is as though as lot of universities – or a lot of courses - serve a completely different purpose.

Instead of someone being able to expand their mind and to grow and develop, they will simply have their mind filled with propaganda. Whether they learn something or not will be defined by whether to not it fits a certain ideology.

Intellectual Abuse

Someone like this is then going to be paying money to be told what to think and not how to think. It is not going to be dissimilar to someone who pays a religious leader to indoctrinate them.

While this is less likely to happen, at least they would know what is going on; whereas the same can’t be said when someone is at university. The people are supposed to give them the tools that they need to thrive, are going to be doing everything they can to make sure that they think like they do.

One Factor

The fact that far more people go to university could be seen as one of the reasons why certain universities are out of control. Not only this, but people are learning things there that they wouldn’t have learnt about in the past.

Said another way, it is far easier for someone to get into somewhere like this, and it is then to be expected that this will create a different environment. There is also another reason that is put forward as to why this kind of behaviour occurs.

Black and White

A lot of these institutions are left-leaning and this can mean that certain views will be seen as acceptable and certain views wont. And, as certain views will be seen as the right views, there is going to be no reason for opposing points of view to be expressed.

Therefore, if a student has been ‘educated’ to see the world through a certain lens, and they were to come into contact with someone who talks about things that go against what they now believe; it will be normal for them to see this person as the enemy. Someone like this can talk about how important it is to be tolerant, when in reality; they won’t know the meaning of the word.

External Support

They are then not going to have an open mind and the desire to have their views challenged; they will be more concerned with silencing people who see the world differently. It will then be as though they don’t have the ability to use their brain to prove someone is wrong, which is why they need to resort to violence.

Either someone like this won’t have received the guidance they need to debate, or they are too emotionally unstable to be able to think rationally. If they are in a bad place emotionally, perhaps it would better for them to put their education to one side and to get the kind of support that they desperately need.

Taking Responsibility

Through taking this approach, it will stop them from having a negative effect on the people who actually want to learn. If they don’t, they will be abusing other people, and this is no different to parent who abuses their children out of their own inability to deal with their own pain.

Nevertheless, if a speaker has views that are seen as controversial, and this can just mean that what they say is backed up by evidence, it can be seen as perfectly normal for someone to be negatively affected by what they hear. Someone can even feel uncomfortable as soon as they are aware of the fact that a certain speaker will be speaking at their university.

One Solution

So, if someone has been affected by what they have heard, regardless of if they lost control of themselves during the event, they can be offered counselling. It can then be as if a certain speaker’s views have had a negative effect on their mental and emotional health.

This can go one step further though, and it can be seen as a sign that certain views, views that they don’t agree with, are bad for student’s mental and emotional health. Based on this, there will be no reason to look into why a student has responded in a certain way; no, the only thing that will need to happen is to make sure that certain views are not expressed on campus.

One Big Cover Up

It can then seem as though they care about a student’s mental and emotional health, yet this is not going to be the complete truth. It might be more accurate to say that they are using these students as a means to an end.

Through having students that respond in this manner, they can silence people while looking virtuous in the process. This is then similar to how a government will suddenly become cornered with how people are being treated in another country, as it gives them a reason to go in there and drop a load of bombs, thereby allowing them to asset strip the country.

Conclusion

If a lecturer, for instance, truly cared about a student’s mental and emotional health, they wouldn’t support the view that these speakers are having a negative effect on their wellbeing. What they would do is suggest that someone like this gets the right support, the support that will allow them to handle different viewpoints.

As if someone ends up in a bad way after hearing a different point of view, they are going to need a lot more than counselling. Due to how mentally and emotionally unstable they are, they are likely to be carrying trauma, and this going to mean that they will require the assistance of therapist or a healer.
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Ultimately, a university is somewhere where different views are shared and questioned; so if someone can’t handle different points of view and having their views questioned, should they really be there to begin with? What is clear is that these kinds of people are not pawns to be used in a political game; they are people who need the right mental and emotional assistance.