(2003-09-04) — Beloit College has provided its professors with its annual Mindset List, to give them a sense of the worldview of incoming freshmen.
Here are some excerpts from the list illustrating the perspective of students born in 1983.
- From their point of view, Ronald Reagan is an airport.
- Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Martin Sheen are the only presidents they have ever known.
- The childhood tackling game “smear the queer” is a hate crime.
- Pornography and flag desecration are protected speech.

- The Second World War was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Tom Hanks.
- Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) include second-hand smoke and sport utility vehicles, and there are none in Iraq.
- The great political minds of this generation include Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Barbra Streisand, George Clooney and Janeane Garafalo.
- Dinner with the family happens only in the minivan.
- Elections determine who gets kicked off the island.
- Everyone remembers where they were when the Oslo accords were signed, bringing everlasting peace to the middle east.
- America has always been the greatest threat to world peace.
- Islam is a religion of peace.
- Since Oprah has not yet recommended their books, today’s freshmen don’t know the names Alexis de Tocqueville or Adam Smith.
- Although they’ve never heard of Ozzie and Harriet, they think Ozzy and Sharon are the ideal parents.
- Everybody remembers where they were when they heard that John F. Kennedy’s plane had crashed into the ocean.
- For girls born in 1983, freedom means getting an abortion.
- For boys born in 1983, freedom means not having to care for one’s offspring.
- They have never sprayed on deodorant.
- Self-evident truth is an oxymoron.
- Liberal means progressive.
- Conservative means extremist.
- They’ll never read this list, since it’s too long to IM.

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