Good morning, students! I can see by the expressions on your faces that you are surprised to see me empty-handed this morning. After all, you took a test last class meeting and probably expected your results back today. But, don’t worry one little bit. I have a good reason for not grading your exams. I simply didn’t feel like doing it.
That's a quote from Mike Adams' piece titled I Feel, therefore I am at Town Hall, and in his satire it is clear that he really does "let his feelings out."
Complaining about "the kids these days" has been going on at least since Socrates and, no matter what you say, it tends to sound like a fuddy-duddy talking. Furthermore, how many of us were paragons of character in our youths?
Still, as a psychiatrist, I have to agree with Adams that the extent to which people feel entitled to elevate their feelings above the time-honored virtues like duty, discipline, consideration of others, and loyalty is a sign of the times. Most of us are lazy, at least some of the time; self-indulgent, some of the time; chose instant gratification over long-term goals, some of the time; and avoid challenges and hard things, at least some of the time. However, with good moral and character guardrails, we don't let ourselves get away with those kinds of infantilism for too long, partly because it doesn't work, and partly because it makes it impossible to respect oneself.
Blame it all on misunderstandings of Rousseau and Freud. If we are guided by emotion, rather than informed by emotion, we aren't much more than monkeys.
Read Adams' piece, and I will try to dig up an essay I wrote a few years ago on the subject, and I'll post it when I find it, buried somewhere on some hard drive.
