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Jewish World Review Nov 11, 2011/ 14 Mar-Cheshvan, 5772 ‘Right to Riot’ Cemented in Campus Culture By Jonah Goldberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Of course we're going to riot," The coach in question, as we all know, is You have to wonder what's wrong with our society when someone can say, "Of course we're going to riot," but not over the cover-up of pedophiliac rape. Rather, students feel it is their obvious right, perhaps even duty, to throw violent temper tantrums when a multimillionaire football coach is fired, simply because the coach is part of their "college experience." "We got rowdy, and we got maced," Really? I don't think Paterno is anywhere near the worst offender among those who did considerably less than the bare minimum that decency and integrity require. But there's something deeply, pathetically sick about the idea that what tarnished Paterno's legend was his termination and not the fact that he never once bothered to ensure that an alleged child rapist was stopped. Yes, yes: Journalistic niceties require that I say Obviously, the real horror here is in the alleged criminal conduct (and if you haven't read the indictment of Sandusky -- and have a strong stomach -- you should look it up on the Internet). But there's a larger point to be made here. Several, actually. People keep saying the cover-up proves the corruption of college football. Maybe so. College football certainly has its myriad and manifest vices. But what about the riots? These aren't simply a product of football culture, they're a product of a campus culture that teaches students they have an absolute right to whatever their hearts desire, starting with a fun-filled college experience and, afterwards, a rewarding career. Imbued with a sense of victimhood, entitlement and cultivated grievance that can only be taught, their preferred response to inconvenience is a temper tantrum. Sometimes, as with the Perhaps that's why a "right to riot" has become a staple of campus culture across the country, particularly at big schools. Students riot when administrators take away their beer. They riot when they lose games. They riot when they win games. They riot when the cops try to break up parties. Inconvenience itself has become outrageous. It is also why idiotic protests have come to be seen as "part of the college experience," as if chanting inane slogans and spouting weepy canned platitudes is essential to a well-rounded education. (We are now seeing an extension of the repugnant narcissism of campus culture setting up outposts in Most of the time, I find campus protest culture to be shallow and predictable. But I would have cheered it this time around, if only someone rioted for the alleged victims of
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