One of the many things which has stuck in my craw over the years is the ease with which people take offense. When you really stop and think about the actual nature of taking offense it becomes a very silly emotion.

In its most basic form it represents the refusal to understand the merit or the value of an idea and a thoughtless dismissal  of that same concept. This is particularly frightening given that here at a liberal arts college we are, or at least should be, almost daily required to think about and examine material which challenges us both intellectually and philosophically.

Now I’m sure we’ve all been in classrooms where two people disagreed. Whether it may have been two students disagreeing with each other or a student disagreeing with the professor, I’m sure we’ve all seen it. In those moments people grow. In those moments people learn and flourish.

Disagreements push and extend our personal frontiers. The conflict they generate can strengthen our own views or they can change our minds. But this will never happen when you let yourself fall into the trap of offense.

Allowing yourself to be offended is roughly akin to shutting out the outside world. It’s roughly akin to building a mental barrier between yourself and the ideas and opinions of others. It is the mental equivalent of sticking your hands in your ears and going “neener neener neener.”

Allowing yourself to become offended will limit your mental flexibility and your ability to coexist with others.  By refusing to listen to the ideas, opinions and viewpoints of others, you will limit your ability to solidify your own worldview or to learn and incorporate new way of seeing things into your life. Like it or not, we learn through conflict, and to avoid a discussion because it might be offensive is to waste an opportunity to become a stronger person.

There is no such thing as the right to not be offended. I, for one, happen to be extremely offended by the color yellow. I find it garish and overly cheery while still being utterly bland and dull. Looking around the room right now I see no less than 17 instances of the color yellow. Going through my day I will likely encounter this color thousands of times. Imagine how frustrating and anxiety-riddled my life would be if I bothered to get offended over every instance of the color yellow in my life.

More importantly, imagine how silly it would seem if I tried to ban or otherwise limit the use of the color yellow because it offended me.

Wasting energy and time in becoming offended over philosophies, political views, word choices or even art is no less ridiculous for the simple reason that being offended adds nothing to the world.

Let’s pretend for a moment that I am personally and deeply offended by the concept of two men marrying each other. Perhaps this is because my religion happens to briefly gloss over it in one of the more obscure chapters of its holy text.

Where does this lead me? My taking offense has not created anything, nor has it even really caused me to think. All that’s been done is that I’ve developed a rather acute and hard to describe anxiety. Sure, I may become inspired to go out and wave a few protest signs around, but let’s face it, offense is a much less powerful motivator than say fear, or love, or even hunger.

If you live your life constantly being offended, you will waste your energy, your time and any opportunities to grow from the experience. Remember that there is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.