There's been plenty of discussion about the student in Florida who was physically removed from a speech being given by John Kerry. You can see an excellent round-up of reaction to it here on Pajamas Media.
I'm sure if you read all those takes on it, you might think there's a wide range of opinion. I don't. I see one kind of opinion about it. It's the opinion that's shared by the nattering classes in everything. It's the point of view of the narcissistic attention-whoring college student. No one anything like the people that were forced to choose between letting him carry on like the jerk he manifestly is or removing him from the premises will ever be heard from.
The essential thing I saw, completely overlooked by all opinion makers I read, was this young fellow's attitude toward the people who were trying to get him to comply. They were nothing to him. But then again, they are nothing to all the commenters, too. Some people applauded what they did; some excoriated what they did; but in all cases the attitude is one of deciding how well the little people did performing some menial task that was their lot. It all felt like deciding to tip a servant or not.
It's funny --a little-- that the reason this guy was yelling at John Kerry was that he was angry that Kerry wasn't angry enough; wasn't nearly as angry as him. How dare he not share his rage. He was angry, ultimately, that democracy meant that he might be forced to submit to the will of people that exist only as an abstraction; to be discussed politically, or as proles to be ordered around. He doesn't believe for one minute that John Kerry really won that election. He's angry that John Kerry refuses to use the pretexts he can cite chapter and verse to overthrow the government, with some semblance of cover-our-ass due process, and put the little people, and their wishes that rankle him so, back down where they belong. And he was very angry that people that he ranks with all the serfs would remind him of his responsibilities as a member of polite society, by daring to interrupt him and trying to remove him from the scene of his triumph. He's going to argue with a Senator. You think he's going to let some glorified mall cops tell him what to do? They dress in polyester, for Christ sakes.
It was the perfect tableau, really, with the most profoundly patrician member of the hoariest old nest of bluebloods in government presiding over it, for the fellow to yank his arm away from persons he feels unworthy to touch him. His unwillingness to submit to the directions of those not only lawfully directed to restrain him in that setting, but given that right by him, by his very presence in that forum, is laughable. Do you know who I am? -- onstage and off.
College really doesn't educate people much any more. If you're not getting credentials that require a test after, like engineering or medicine or law or some such, it amounts to a very expensive indoctrination into a very narrow worldview. And the first item of indoctrination is that poor woking schlubs like the campus police, and regular police, are handy as political furniture if you're talking about race or class or income disparity or something similar in some three-bong-hit humanities class, but in real life they, and the lawfully constituted authority they represent, are just serfs to be ordered around.
I know exactly what's going through the mind of the loudmouth. He's playing for the cheap seats -- eating the scenery, as they say about bad actors in the theater. He knows, ultimately, that nothing much is going to happen to him no matter how childish and nasty he acts.
I know exactly what goes through the head of the people who had to subdue him, too. Will I be fired if I do something? Will I be fired if I don't? Is this fellow a jerk, or dangerous? How long do I have to decide?
You know what? Sometimes it sucks to be a regular old person, wondering where your next meal might come from, while the beautiful people argue over how well they'd treat you if you'd just shut up and do as you're told.
I am not going to weigh in on who's corrrect: people who say he was treated too roughly, or those that think he acted too badly. But if I was those cops, I'd dream of a bastille tonight, and lots of full baskets. If I could get any sleep.
PJM ROUNDUP: Videos posted on the Internet Tuesday show police shocking a Florida university student with an electric stun gun during a speech by US Senator John Kerry, prompting the former presidential candidate to express regret over the incident. (AFP)...
Tracked: Sep 19, 15:50
Perhaps I spoke too soon when I wrote about Andrew Meyer, AKA Captain Fantastic the Don't Tase Me Bro Cowboy the other day:No one anything like the people that were forced to choose between letting him carry on like the jerk he manifestly is, or removi
Tracked: Sep 20, 14:54