Theories of Mystery

7/21/2019 Theories of Mystery

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Dr. Everett Piper, President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, recently published an open letter on their website. For those unaware, OKWU is an evangelical Christian university... and I'm an atheist agreeing with an evangelical Christian in this regard. How awesome is that!

His open letter is in response to the frustrations associated with the "millennial generation" caused by their generally coddled upbringing. While his message has strong faith-based overtones, it's valid and important statement of "suck itup you babies, life just got real."

Good for him. I think he is saying what a lot of other people are thinking.

Hopefully he doesn't hurt anyone's feelings and ends up having to resign.

"This past week, I actually had a student come forward after a university chapel service and complain because he felt victimized by a sermon on the topic of 1 Corinthians 13. It appears that this young scholar felt offended because a homily on love made him feel bad for not showing love. In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable."

"Im not making this up. Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them feel bad about themselves

, is a hater, a bigot, an oppressor, and a victimizer.

I mean really????!!!!

What is going on exactly?Good for him. When these coddled children move into the real world, they won't be able to cope.

Pretending to be a victim won't play well once you're on your own.Good on him...hopefully this gains them more applicants, because while I'm not a proponent of a lot of the Christian teachings, I can back what he's saying here, and if it produces adults who have a good work ethic and don't play the victim for the rest of their lives, I can overlook the whole supernatural-being thing

for now.a reply to: seagull

Hopefully I'm wrong... but I don't think we've seen nuttin' yet.

Just think how many kids in the 10 to 13 year age bracket are still being taught (or indoctrinated or brainwashed, if you like) into thinking in this manner.... that everything is offensive, etc. And they still have a few more years until they reach college.

Side Note: Two sides to the coin.

1) I wasn't a particularly bad kid in school, but I had my moments. Back then, w

hen the school called home, I was automatically guilty in the eyes of my parents (and to be candid... rightfully so). But something seems to have happened along the way. Nowadays it seems like when little Johnny's teacher calls home, the parents INSTANTLY insist that "Someone must have done something to provoke our little angel."

2) However, with that said, I do see many of the public schools acting a littlescrewy these days, so I can see why parents in SOME instances aren't so quick to take the school's side. That school out in California (I think) that didn't allow students to wear anything with an American flag on May 5th, as to not "offend



" the Mexican students. You had that other school where they were making the kids sing some recent pop song with lyrics changed to be all about Islam (I believe someone on ATS made a thread about it). All sorts of odd things coming out of the schools these days.

Good read and I believe it should go out to the masses to see. *WARNING,ABOUT TO USE A WIDE BRUSH*I know there are those that are very good people out there in this up coming generation,HOWEVER,the most of them I see and hear about are just too busy taking selfies all the time to even use common sense. I have never seen a generation ofpeople that spent every waking moment going on about ME ME ME,like these peopledo. When you have a group of people SO STUPID,AND YES I SAID THAT,that they can't understand cgi and run out to a forest to take 'selfies' with live wild bears,and the park has to close to the public so they don't end up having to kill said bears because of your stupidity,.....HOUSTON,WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

These same fools follow everything about the Kardasians like its their bible orsomething. That is the most untalented group of losers I have ever seen. To follow them is a total waste of time,that could be put to better use in this world.In the meantime,they don't want to get involved in politics because the issues are just to confusing for them! They sit with their heads in their phones in NewYork while a robbery goes on next to 20 of them,and not one of them even knew arobbery was in progress! Had they known,I sincerely doubt they would have called the police,they would have been too busy videoing it. But at least then the pol

ice would have had something to go on.

I have talked to friends of mine that are business owners and have hired some of them.OMG. They have nothing good to say about them. They tell me they have NO work ethic at all. They think they should just breeze in and work when they feellike it,and go home when they don't. It is mind boggling. My friends said outright, I won't hire any more of them! They just can not conduct business normally with them and their foolishness.

This nonsense on campus' that has been going on lately.Yes it is foolishness. They are there to get an education,yet spend their time stirring up trouble. If you are being harassed on campus and can't get anyone to help you,I get it,you have to stand up and do something about it. But when your demands are better wages

for people that work on campus? Not your monkey,not your circus.Get back in theclassroom.

Now lets go to a sticky place,here is the reality of life: Sometimes bad peopledo good things,and sometimes good people do bad things.It is called being human. Hitler built the autobahn. Nothing bad about that right? Does it make him a good person? Nope. But even evil people can now and then pull off something worthwhile. The same is true over good people. If you look deep enough into any famousperson's life,you will see both good and bad. We have people in this day and age that want to CHANGE HISTORY. They want to ban certain people for the bad things they did,no matter if they did anything else that was good or not. They want their names gone,or symbols banned etc. so that future generations will have no idea of what those things are ,or what they once meant. This is how history gets r

ewritten and the truth sinks into a mud pit never to be seen again.

Did the Germans tear down the concentration camp after WW2? Nope,Auschwitz is still standing to this day. Why? For all generations to come and see what that generation did and how wrong it was,so it will never be repeated again.That is howyou deal with bad things people do.You hold it up to the light and let all see it for what it is. That way it is used as a teaching tool for the future. It is bad enough that history is written by the victors.Now we muddle it up further byjust removing inconvenient truths.



We are a nation with amnesia.We just keep going over and over the same mistakesagain because we refuse to remember and learn.

Both of those is why parents need to be involved in the schooling of their children.

There would be no excuse for a school to get away with #2, if parents were involved.

My parents, especially my mom, would have gone nuts. In high school, most of myteachers knew who my parents were, 'cause they were there, every time the opportunity was presented.

...and God have mercy if I got in trouble. They'd make sure it was actually legit, then I was in trouble. It taught me to stay on the straight and narrow for the most part, but it also taught me how to be sneaky...

Even when I was going to college, I was expected to let 'em know what was goingon.

Didn't like it much then, but now? I couldn't be more thankful for it.

Last weeks images of student anarchy sweeping across Americas campuses should compel anyone who believes in a civil society and at least a modicum of intellectual

liberty to ask a simple question: What have we wrought by what we have taught?

It all starts with education. What we teach our kids will bear predictable results. Teaching our children good ideas will lead to good beliefs, good behavior, good community and good government. Teaching them bad ideas will lead to bad beliefs, bad behavior, bad community and bad government. As Adolf Hitler is purported to have said, Let me control the textbooks and I will control the State. Education always has a predictable, if not an inevitable, outcome.

The American university is imploding in its self-refuting duplicity. What was academic freedom yesterday has become ideological fascism today. You must think as we think. Submit or be silenced! The university is obviously in peril. Run by the State and its thought police, colleges across the land have become indoctrina

tion camps more so than campuses of open inquiry. Propaganda and power now reign where there used to be a pursuit of truth.

But why are we surprised? Bad ideas will breed bad behavior as surely as an acorn will grow an oak or a hurricane will bring a flood. Ideas have consequences, and the lousy ideas we have been teaching in our universities for the past several decades are bearing themselves out daily before our eyes. Preaching victimization and fomenting class resentment; teaching moral nihilism while mocking moralabsolutes; dumbing down the value of life by creating a culture of death; worshiping government rather than God; celebrating vice while mocking virtue These are just some of the ideas we have been teaching for decades since Weavers prophetic treatise, and the outcome of our ideological temper tantrum has been as predictable as oak trees, hurricanes and even the sunrise. Bad ideas bear bad fruit. Ga

rbage in, garbage out.

I hope you've thoroughly inspected the program you have this child enrolled in,because that can be extremely harmful. You may well be better off without the training some of these teachers go through.

- On Topic:There's a very different culture now than we had when I was growing up (I'm in my thirties). I'd guess we're looking at a snow ball that started rolling after t



he great depression. It seems a lot of parents back then vowed their children would not go through the hardships they'd endured. School was promoted for numerous reasons, but I think its main lure was in graduation status. Most people didn't have much of a concept of what education really was, and it wasn't a priorityin the working class values they were brought up with; they new a graduation diploma offered a higher status though. These children were told they had a special future. Many would be the first in their families to graduate high-school or go to college.

A question on your disabled kid: would you rather see them receive a high-school diploma (or equivalent) even though they haven't developed the intellect that would usually be required to graduate middle-school, or would you rather they reach their full intellectual capacity even without a diploma? While not mutually exclusive, these are both real possibilities, and from my experience most parents are far more concerned with the diploma than the education.

I do agree with you in a way. Overall, parents just aren't as involved in theirkids' lives as they used to be. Moms used to be the anchor of the family, but now, moms are working outside the home and they are just too dang tired to spend a lot of time connecting with the kids. Because of that, I think parents feel guilty so they spoil their kids to make up for the lack of personal attention. This (in my opinion) has greatly contributed to the "special snowflake" issue. You can't really blame the kids for that.

Don't get me wrong, I consider myself a feminist and I believe all women have the right to do what they want with their life, BUT, I am old school when it comes to raising kids. I always agreed with Katherine Hepburn who said she believed women had to make a choice between their career or raising children - they shouldn't try to do both (she opted for her career). If you choose a career, don't have kids. If you choose to have kids, then stay at home and raise them. If you can't afford to do that - don't have kids.

I should add that it could be the father who stays at home to raise the kids while the mom works. That's fine with me - as long as someone is the primary caregiver for the kids.

a reply to: 0hlord

First of all, why don't you do something about it....it's your generation not mine.

Second, I haven't complained (I'll use a grown up word instead of your choice) one bit in this thread about your generation. I simply stated my opinions.

I simply agreed with the opinions of the posters that replied to you. Am I still entitled to that opinion or, does it offend you in some way?

Let me tell ya, you got nothing on me when it comes to wrath if you catch me ona wrong day. I can 100% promise you on that.

So, I'm not sure why you came at me like that but, it's not going to help change my opinion of your generation one bit.Yep, I fit a few of those groups. I'm an American and was in the U.S. military,so I get slammed for that here. You have the muslim threads, the christian threads, the sinner threads, and now these Millennial threads keep popping up talking about how all of them are lazy, whinny, POS's that feels entitled to everything in life...lmfao. So a few privileged kids whine about things, the media turns it into a frenzy with their motives and then the posters on ATS eat it up. Just so many hypocrisies from the posters in this thread, I don't even know where to start. Just wondering what the hell is going on lately. What happened to the ATS



I used to love? Seems like a site to just spew hatred lately.

You aren't wrong. In many ways, it's a living breathing example of chickens coming home to roost.

All too many were so worried about career, and having it all, that they forgot,if they ever knew, that if the kids in your life are good people, you don't need much after that.

I've never had a whole lot in my life, being poor is like that...but the kids in my life are good people, and when I watch them succeeding? Hey, life is prettygood.

Somewhere, sometime, many forgot that simple lesson. In the 1984 film, The Karate Kid, wise old karate master Mr. Miyagi tells Daniel that there is no such thing as bad student, only bad teacher. Is this true? What Mr. Miyagi is trying toemphasize is the importance of good teaching. Of course, the value of an inspiring, dedicated and experienced teacher cannot be underestimated.

However, what Miyagi fails to take into account is that learning is a shared responsibility. No matter how good or bad a teacher is, a large portion of the responsibility must fall on the student. Ideally your child and their teacher are ateam, working together to achieve a common goal.OK, here comes a bunch of easy chair pop psychology crap. That is I have no idea

really why you or he or anyone chose an avatar. Mine, I chose because it was arock I pulled out of a river bed and I thought it looked like ET.But to offer, as I said, an old layman's very thin guesses at psychology,,,You may just be a Depp fan and liked the avatar, I don't know. ( My favorite Depp movie was Ed Wood)

I think that is Depp's Hunter S Thompson in his gonzo years? If so all I can dois present my opinion of him. He was of my generation. He held certain hopes and fears and had a good amount of talent. But he was a self indulgent narcissist himself and though a hero to many of my age, myself included for a while, he wasseen as a destroyer of civilization type to many others. He road the wave of let it all hang out that was set in motion by the beat generation. To me I can draw a clear connection of the type of freedom he extolled and the purported generat

ion that is now being pummeled in this thread.

What does that say about you as juxtaposed with the Murray character? You have chosen as a representation of yourself here on ATS, an avatar of a man who represents the struggle to be free, to make ones own way, to become the best whateverit is you want to be. While I liked this about Thompson, well I have to admit, he was not a perfect example for younger generations. So, choosing an avatar outof respect I presume, I have to wonder at deriding a whole generation who, for my mind, are a direct result of HST wannabes.

And the Stripes character? Not based on a real person at all. That character was a total fabrication built on a premise that all you need is bull# to survive. Oh and a good heart. That movie was made to capitalize on the success of Caddysha

ck and the money making prospects of Murray at the time. Those characters all presented this anti establishment irreverent persona. Unlike another Murray character of irreverence, his role in Meatballs, at least had the fall back position of him having a good heart and pulling for the underdog. Not so in Stripes.

Again, to my mind, though I loved Stripes, that character is not a shining example to younger generations. so, again, for me neither a good examples of how to live to be presented to upcoming generations.

And for me all of that crap is moot anyway. I just find jumping on 'the next' ge



neration for not living up to the standards of ones own generation to be a might hypocritical while at the same time extolling the heros of ones own, faulty generation. Mine included

I hear what you are saying but there is way too much blame to spread around, todrop the bucket at any one set of feet.

Go back to the beginning to where you think the problems started, then go back two more generations, just for good measure.

You will see that the consistent theme from generation to generation is malcontentment. Malcontentment breeds malcontentment. Parents struggled, sacrificed, and fought, to make a life for their children that was better than the one they had. In every generation, the parents meant well. They taught their children that life short changed them, that there was a better world out there to be had. All they had to do was go out there and get it. There were people all around them that had more, and more was available to them as well, if they ...... (fill in theblank).

Well it didn't work. No matter what they did it wasn't enough. There were no big gains in working hard, saving till it hurt, going to school, getting a degree,it was never enough, for that big wind fall, that "I made it!", the world is myoyster moment.

Some people made small strides, and some family members made it up high enough above the other folk, to generate just the right amount of envy, but for the majority of folk, it has been a slow and difficult climb, getting nowhere fast, andveraciously fighting the downward slide.

In the process we have taught our children that making it in the eyes of the world is the ultimate goal. How do you measure that? Well, first we thought it wasmeasured by what others had. As long as we had as much or more than the Jones',than we were making it and we were safe.

When we left our tiny burbs and moved out into the world, we ran into some problems. Validating yourself was a lot more difficult to do, because there was little time left for anything other than working to keep up. Time became a rare premi

um. Children became latch key children, but all was well because mommy and daddy were bringing home things. Things that validated them and they were able to give their children all the dream book garbage they wished for but could never have.

Latch key kids, learned the importance of work, and a good work ethic. They liked things, so they made sure their children had even more things then they had. It was the way they demonstrated their love because, they grew up with things, because mommy and daddy were working most of the time, but they had weekends.

Latch key kids were faced with the difficulty of providing their children with things, and a roof, with money starting to become harder to get, and it just didn't buy as much as before. It required more hours and days of work, just to break

even. TV, video games, and friends, became the babysitter, and social connections for their children, but it was okay, because mommy and daddy were still bringing home things.

So now we have children that have no real concept of love, or one on one interpersonal touching relationships. They have a confused and have a distorted concept of physical intimacy. They are centered around self, because it is all they know, and that is all they have been taught.

They get their social cues from strangers in a virtual fantasy world of their ow



n making. This is what we have handed them and they are doing the best they canwith what we have given them.

I tried once to discuss the abysmal legacy that we are responsible before. It is not something that most people want to think about.

Personally I don't think there's anything we can do. What's going on today is no different than what went on before. Eventually there'll be thought control. Ina race to simplify and control, we'll remove some things. We'll have to replacethings. We'll merge with AI. We'll increasingly engineer our biology and use synthetic body parts when practical.

I think we'll keep emotions. Only the ones which are fit. In future days, we'llthink of it as emotion management. Controlling the animal to make better choices and to manifest a more peaceful adjusted society.

I don't like some things, but ultimatley I'll be dead before it really becomes a probelm. Most people in old age never really get with the times. They just getby, keeping busy and--god willing--die smiling. I don't think I'll grow old so I don't think I'll even need to get by, let alone get with the times. So for me I'm a casual spectator on the sidelines, unfortunately. I know that won't make me popular but I don't know what else to say.

EDIT: I grew up in a school environment much less concerned with "safe spaces."

That was just 20 years ago. If in the space of 20 years this much can chane, imagine 100 or 200. This is nothing.I think my problem is simply with people who feel the world owes them something... I also have major beef with people who havea personal failure they choose to blame on everyone else.Newsflash (and I'll use a bit harsher language than the good reverend in the OPused):1. The world doesn't owe anyone a goddamned thing except dealing with the body after death if prior arraingements haven't been provided for. Get over yourselves! If you want stuff earn it! Bend your GD backs, get your hands dirty, whip your brain into shape to make it work for you, put forth whatever effort is required. Granted, that effort is almost always more strenuous than the effort it takesto sit on your ass pissing and whining about how unfair life is. Bottom line, aside from a handful of politicians who are trying to build a Kept Voter base of b

ought and paid for zilches who will never vote against their Meal Ticket, *most* Americans who are actually working and making their own way are sick and tiredof providing for those who don't! "I didn't get a job out of school... boo hoo." Did you look hard enough? Did you look outside your comfort zone? Did you lookat job availability away from your home? Did you look outside of your preferredfields? Did you apply for jobs you really don't want, but will provide for yourneeds to the same degree you apply yourself until something better comes along?I have yet to see anyone honestly answer "yes" to all of these after throwing their little "I can't find work" hissy fits.2. Once you turn legal age, 18 in most states... once your testicles have descended or your menses begun, and you've reached the culmination of your physical maturation that occurs at the end of your teen years... YOU are responsible for YOU. No more blaming mommy and daddy, no more blaming the big mean old world, no m

ore blaming everybody out there under the sun. If you find yourself languishingin failure and despair, find a mirror, look at your reflection in it, and say "Damn you, you failed me." This is a simple fact of life that *some* have tried to sugar coat... you are not your brother's keeper, you're your OWN keeper. If you fail, then you fail. If you succeed, then despite what the pandering enabler in the White House claims, you really did build that! Congratulations to you.

My friend and my neighbor both had to pull their children out of private school, and one of them was a Christian school, for the exaggerated level of bullying,that was going on among the students.



Private school children can be very cliquish and very elitist. In both cases their children were not those ones that were being bullied, but they didn't like the attitudes they saw them starting to develop. The worse part is that the behavior was endemic. You could spot a child from one of the private schools a mile away, even when they weren't wearing their uniforms.

Both my friend and my neighbor, decided they didn't want their children in thatenvironment, and they were not going to pay for that corruption, so they pulledtheir children out. Both found schools they were satisfied with and even I can tell a change in the the children's behavior. Number one, they seem happier, more talkative, and engaging. I also noticed they don't seem to spend as much time with their face in their cell phone. They actually seem to enjoy walking and talking with an old lady, when I visit. The contradictions from that particularposter was too much for me...I just had to move on.

Sometimes it's just not worth the time it takes to post a reply.

The rest of your post, I'm in 100% agreement. I worked hard for everything I have....damn hard too!

I put myself through college working multiple jobs and often went days without sleep. I had to sacrifice certain "luxuries" like sleep because I didn't have a m

ommy or daddy to fall back on when I needed help.

I just sucked it up and did what I had to do. If I failed, it was my own failure. I didn't blame anyone for it...I picked myself up and moved on. I didn't really have any other option.

It's difficult for me to be sympathetic to people that do not and, will not take responsibility for their own lives. Those that try to place blame on others for the state of their being.

This belief extends to all generations, not just the ones that seem to be getting the national headlines as of late.

Don't blame others for your failures....that's the way I see it. If someone wants something badly enough, they will do anything and everything they can to get it. No one said it was easy and believe me...it's NOT easy.

I know this from personal experience

I just read this earlier today and I must say I agree with this man whole heartedly!

What has become of our colleges and universities today that our young adults have become whining, sniveling babies? "Safe zones" for when students are feeling butthurt? Being offended by anything and everything that isn't in line with their own personal opinions?

You're in America crybabies- wake up and smell the coffee! Our founding fathersguarantee our right to make you feel butthurt so if you want to be treated likeadults then grow up and ACT like adults! People have freedom of speech here whether you like it or not!

Shamrock is right. What it all comes down to is personal responsibility. If, bya certain age, you haven't learned to take care of yourself and take responsibility for your own actions, how can you honestly blame anyone but yourself? I andmany others, got where we are by realizing one simple fact : Life is not easy an



d it sure as Hell ain't free. We knew what we wanted and worked toward that goal. No one had to tell us, we figured it out all on our own. The 18 - 25 crowd goes around like someone owes them what they want and when the truth smacks'em in the face they howl "It's not fair!" and whine for someone to fix it.The world is not fair, it's not cheap and it's not easy. Wishing and whining isnot going to change that.

I do and have taken responsibility for what I have done. Here is the thing,I grew up in a very bad home situation and my 3 siblings try not to,but do go on rants about our parents and how it was all their fault. Did my parents have some responsibility with the way they raised us? Of course,but once you hit 21 its times to put your big boy and girl panties on and deal with it. You can not go back and have someone 'fix' what they did or didn't do.

Life promises none of us a rose garden like it or not.I don't feel like I'm special or exceptional or owed much of anything in life. It is what it is.All I have ever asked for is what I paid into.And I paid into it because I knew I was supposed to get the money or at least some of it back. In my original post I put upa warning: painting with a wide brush. I did this on purpose so those who are not like this,would understand that I wasn't referring to them. Therefore,the only ones that should feel threatened or upset,is the ones it does apply to.If thatis the case,then fix what you are doing,right now,this second.But anymore of REAL life passes you by. Do not sit there with the phone in front of your face andmiss out on the beauty of this world. It comes with the ugliness.Take both,its l

ife.

I think they have some legitimate issue and some ludicrous demands really though, I don't think they act (though they their philosophies and ideologiesare vastly different than) any different than the majority or at least the veryvocal do in their politics and expectations in society has for generations. I see a lot of people crying about these kids and their special snowflake syndrome who are very much afflicted with the same. You can actually easily substitute politically correct with special snowflake too, with all political, religious, societal, ideological factions guilty of it.

Millennials are different, I can't really find a generation to compare them to,

but they are dogmatic about it too. It's hard to really articulate this. They are dogmatic about tolerance, if that makes sense. Where previous generations useChurches, Community Boards, politics to shape a society that is acceptable to them and keep out the ickies. They use group temper tantrums.

I think conversations that don't involve placating and molly-coddling them but still with them, need to happen rather than ridicule and scorn. These are the kids that are going to be responsible for wiping our drool and changing our diapers in our dotage and making sure that public policy ensures our safety and welfare rather than dumping us in old people camps.

I'm in no way saying to give in to their tantrums, if they start shouting and stomping around when we try to talk let us do the same. Sometimes two year old bab

ies don't understand how ridiculous temper tantrums are until the adult throws one too.

Dunno. I just feel like ignoring/scorning/turning our backs is the wrong way tohandle it. Edit: Just wanted to point out that I agree with you....I was making a point by replying to you.

I digress....let's take generational issues out of the equation and make it an "adult" issue.



Just for the sake of appeasing a few that don't seem to realize that we are nottalking about a generation per say but, a mentality perhaps.

If you are over the age of oh, lets say 25....and you are still blaming someonefor your problems and failures...then, YOU are the problem.

At some point in ones life, they have to accept their life as their own and accept the responsibilities that come along with it...it's just that simple.

It's called personal accountability. It spreads beyond just one generation....Hell, I know Gen xer's that still live at home with mommy and daddy and still suck off the boob of the government.

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