The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article discussing whether the college fraternity system should be done away with, in a pro- and con- format. I won’t discuss the details of the debate, because the question alone is sufficient to raise a broader issue.
A middle-aged person of sound mind is presumed to be an adult. His mind is sufficiently developed and mature to enter into contracts, serve in the military, vote, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, get married, drive a car, assume debt and so forth. A one month old infant cannot do any of these things. At some age in between, the child becomes an adult.
The questions that societies have long sought to answer are: what is that age? Is it the same for all persons? Is there a transition period? If so, what becomes permissible when?
Here in the US, the general rule is that one becomes an adult on one’s 18th birthday. That is the age of majority, prior to which one is considered a minor. However, this age does not apply to everything. The legal drinking age is 21. People can begin driving in most states at age 16, under supervised conditions and with variations by state. In Nebraska, the minimum age to get married is 19. In Mississippi, it’s 21. In some states, child support is mandated until age 21. Age of consent varies by state, typically ranging from 16 to 18, with variations on penalties if the partners are close in age.
We have our answers. We do establish majority universally by age, with different ages for different rights and transition periods for skills-based privileges.
There is a consistent theme in all these rules. Each rule grants autonomy upon a presumption of responsibility. When you’re deemed old enough to bear the responsibility for assuming a debt or an obligation, you’re permitted to borrow and contract. When you’re deemed old enough to judge matters political and representative, you’re permitted to vote. When you’re deemed old enough to decide whether you want to take on the risks of smoking, you’re permitted to buy cigarettes. Driving, being a skill, is associated with a graduated permission. 6 months of learner’s permit precedes full rights, and oftentimes there are restrictions on driving at night or driving with passengers. The drinking age was raised to 21 because of the belief that 18, 19 and 20 year olds can’t handle the responsibility (this hasn’t worked out as intended, and those same 18, 19 and 20 year olds are old enough to vote, smoke, sign contracts and join the military, but that’s a topic for another day).
The autonomy/responsibility dyad is being broken down, however, by recent movements in society and government, especially involving college. If college students (18 years of age and older) are presumed to be adults, they may legally contract, assume debt, and associate/assemble with whomever they wish. This includes joining a fraternity. It also includes borrowing money for tuition and exercising fundamental rights such as speech, religion, and due process. Much that goes on regarding college students, unfortunately, involves divesting them of the responsibilities that come with all these aspects of majority.
We see the same when it comes to freedom of speech. If a student has a particular set of viewpoints, he is welcomed to proclaim them. Shout them, if so desired, loudly, vituperatively, and with copious amounts of spluttering spittle. Freedom of speech, you know, and it is unrestricted if the content conforms to a particular worldview. But, if the viewpoints deviate from that worldview… whoops, no freedom of speech. This isn’t a transitional form, it isn’t a learning process. It’s full freedom for some, and zero freedom for others. Moreso, the students who freely exercised their speech rights are deemed incapable of hearing dissent, and must be protected from exposure to dangerous or offensive words of others.
Colleges also establish “sex codes” that control social interactions between people who are deemed adults, who are legally capable of consent, and who are supposedly trustworthy enough to shoot others in defense of their country. These same adults are often stripped of their due process rights if accused of committing a bad act. That’s not adulthood, that’s a mother telling a child that she is the ultimate authority in the household. The student, however, can be punished the way adults are punished.
And, now, fraternities are considered by some to be too fundamentally dangerous for adults of college age. These adults have the right to contract, to assemble/associate with whom they wish, to move about as they wish and so forth. As with college speech, though, it seems that those rights are to be granted piecemeal, with restrictions and boundaries, implying that the adults aren’t sufficiently adult to bear the responsibilities associated with exercising those rights.
That’s not adulthood. That’s not liberty. That’s not majority. It’s an extension of childhood, where kids are put on Daddy’s lap to drive the family minivan slowly around the driveway, or where they’re given a tiny taste of Mommy’s wine, or where they’re allowed to watch TV unsupervised but with parental controls in place. For actual children, these can be good experiences and previews of adulthood. For people who are presumed old enough to engage in fundamentally adult activities, they’re a dangerous message. You’ve the right to do these adult things, but someone else is there to protect you from bad outcomes. Authority without responsibility breeds recklessness and a feeling of invincibility. It also greatly increases the likelihood that, when full majority is reached, when the college students enter the real world, when there are no more speech police, codes of conduct or Mommy/Daddy figures around to fix problems, they’ll be whiny and infantilized.
College students: Adults or children. One or the other. Society needs to choose. We need to choose. If it’s the former, then they should bear all the responsibilities of being adults. If it’s the latter, they shouldn’t get all the rights and privileges of being adults.
Loading ...
Active Comment Threads
Most Commented Posts
Universal Background Checks – A Back Door to Universal Registration
COVID Mask Follies
When Everything Is Illegal…
An Anti-Vax Inflection Point?
“Not In My Name”
The Great Social Media Crackup
War Comes Through The Overton Window
The First Rule of Italian Driving
Most Active Commenters