wannabes who looked just an awful lot like well-fed middle class white kids with cheesy felt pen on poster board signs that read "Stop Fascism Now!" and "Dissent is not Unpatriotic" and "Stop Censorship Now!" and "Defend Muslims" and "Free Speech Now!" and "David, We Love You Now!!" OK, that last one we made up. We wish we had thought to bring our own signs. Like, "Learn to Spell Now!" and "My Tax Dollars and These Twits go to the University of Texas!" and "Go Away Now!" and "No One Put Me up to Making this Crappy Sign" and "Hey, I Want the Butch Security Guard to Cuff Me, Too!"
The lecture was fraught with a certain tension due to the uncouth and uncivil behavior of the rabble and those of us who tossed back their garbage ("Her purse is ugly! Get her out of here!"). Nevertheless, Mr. Horowitz delivered, despite interruptions, despite the passivity of the security guards and despite the disorganization of the Federalist Society. The whole scene became a perfect example of what Mr. Horowitz has been fighting for decades: censorship and thought control on American campuses. The picture of these spoiled children, who adopt Marxism with less thought than they put into choosing a cell phone style, shutting down a lecture because they don't like...correction: because they've been told they shouldn't like what will be said, is really exquisite. One young man, one of the few Leftists who stayed for the whole talk, was irritated that Mr. Horowitz lumped all Leftists together. He was at pains to point out that he himself has rejected Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism. After explaining (clearly and politely) that yes, indeed there is a spectrum of views on the left. Mr. Horowitz said, "As to your beliefs, all I can say is talk is cheap." Again, this young man proved one of the points that Mr. Horowitz was making about the mindset of the left, that for them the glass is not only half empty but they refuse to see that it's being refilled as they watch. They see faults everywhere and reject life as it is, with all of its blessings, in favor of the utopian ideal (in this case , unspecified) which will invariably depend on making everyone else toe the line. Reject Capitalism? Reject away! Outlaw it and tell everyone exactly how to live to make your Utopia work.*
The group that was apparently organized to disrupt the lecture used three main tactics: holding up aforementioned cheesy signs, shouting and interrupting verbally, and using cell phones and air horns to create noise. At various times some were hustled out by campus security, some left noisily of their own accord and some put up a fuss so that they had to be handcuffed, which is the pseudo-revolutionary's martyrdom. You get extra points if you manage to wrest your arm away from the cop long enough to hold your fist high and scream, "Power to the peopllllle!!" Such courage, such passion, such fervor. One could almost hear the the plaintive chorus of babushka-ed garment workers singing "Bread and Roses."
And what of those few who actually stayed long enough to "engage the enemy?" We think that one of them drew the short straw and actually had to stay behind and ask a question while the others, including the cuffed martyrs, regrouped outside on what was a beautiful Spring night. This fellow warned Mr. Horowitz and the FS hosts that his question was going to be a bit longer than the twenty seconds allowed by the rules (we needed rules). Well, predictably, it ran a full minute, causing us to come up with another rule, to wit: if you're going to ask a question that either goes longer than 20 seconds or uses the word "dialectic" (almost always in these circumstances both criteria are met), you have to share your funny cigarettes with the rest of us. This is to enhance the enjoyment of the audience, for sure, but it has the added benefit to the questioner of making him/her appear more intelligent ("oooohhhh, yeah, duuuude. That's heavy"). In any event, Mr. MyQuestionCouldFillABook left (noisily) before Mr. Horowitz had finished his answer. Maybe he was going to faint or be sick. Some people can't handle the truth.
*[They...work] added by author 4/15/05
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