RE: Infantilized Yale students meltdown over professor’s thoughts on Halloween
There is something deeply satisfying about this.
When you think of how hard it is to get into a place like Yale, not just the grades, but you probably have to be a starter on at least one Varsity sports team in high school, and you have to be the volunteer of volunteers in your community and at your church.
And all of this is great, if you are sincere.
It is also, I guess, okay, if you are faking it just to get into a prestigious school, because even if you don't mean it, you are still at least volunteering at the old folks home or whatever.
But then you get to a girl like Jerelyn.
Think of all the ass kissing she had to do to get into Yale. And think of all the suppressed rage and entitlement she had to choke down like bile as she pretended to like things she didn't like, and pretended to care about things that she didn't care about, and all in service of the ultimate payoff:
Jerelyn being recognized as the most specialist special person of all.
Her master plan.
And then. . . in a minute, in a moment, in what was, actually, a bit of mob psychology, she just got caught up and started screaming, and forgot about the fact that everything is filmed these days, and forgot that there is no guarantee that everyone agrees with you, and forgot that oops, maybe people are leaving and I am the only one still screaming.
She didn't even bother to make any sense.
And all that rage and entitlement came out in one glorious exhalation, and it was marvelously cleansing, and must have felt so good that for a while she didn't even know she had fucked up, for a while she felt the righteous rush of finally revealing her true self to the world. For a while the world was bright and beautiful.
And how seldom do these robotic, joyless strivers ever find themselves in a situation that reveals the true beast. How seldom do we get to see it like this.
Get to see that they have been learning things by rote, and have no real understanding of the principles behind the concepts they write A papers about.
Principles like:
Freedom of speech is important.
You can't make a law about every little thing.
Sometimes someone you respect can have a different opinion from yours.
They may have a larger vocabulary, and a greater ability to think in the abstract, but at their most fundamental, the Jerelyn Luthers of the world are following the herd no less than Kim Kardashian fans.
Just with a Thesaurus so they sound smart.
And now, after all that faking, and all that grinding, to get where she is, and whatever she achieves later, and no matter how hard she works to erase this whole episode from her memory or anyone else's, she will now be remembered, for the rest of her life as:
The girl who shrieked at Yale.
The Yale Shrieking Girl.
The Shrieking Girl.
