Trish's Blog

This week it was the turn of Australian National University’s interim Vice Chancellor, Professor Rebekah Brown, who was reported as saying that “students were afraid to express divergent opinions in tutorials due to Cancel Culture.”

Now, ‘Cancel Culture’ isn’t anything new. It has shown up in workplaces, friendship circles, and community groups for as long as we’ve gathered. It’s looks like being banished from tribes, excommunicated from churches, overlooked for promotions, or quietly left off the invite list.

So when I read this in Wednesday’s The Australian, the meaning I made of it was that it’s not surprising students are saying, “It was really hard to challenge ideas without fear of judgement.”

To connect the dots; Diversity of Thought is needed if we want to move beyond echo chambers and start growing real wisdom again. It’s how we learn to listen, to stretch, and to see the world through more than one lens, even when it feels uncomfortable.