So many of these college freshmen felt a moral obligation to project a certain kind of happiness. They could not, as one student put it, “in good conscience” disseminate sadness and unhappiness into the world. Because they chose to remain conscious, they participated in a performance meant to make the collective comfortable, but which came at personal cost—a cost often small, but occasionally great. The layers of ethical issues are numerous. Some of us could be sharing “just to do it,” but the fact of our sharing will evoke in others feelings and ideas about the way the world works.
