#759 Insane Mob

What do hockey fans, hippies, and hip-hopping students have in common? They all share the H-word. Humanity.
Recently there was a bit of a fracas at the local institution of higher learning. Immediately, the handwringers were on the assault, blaming the liberal institution for letting their coddled kids get out of control.
The institution was The Evergreen State College, renowned nationwide for the excellence of its graduates, but, unfortunately, reviled locally by anyone who cares to listen.
It’s become something of a cottage industry in the local newspaper to print alarming stories about the college, and this recent incident was no exception. Naturally, I don’t condone the kids’ behavior, but perhaps we need to put it in context.
It seems that there was a hip-hop concert at the college. There was a personal endangerment issue. The sheriff was called. One of the performers incited the crowd, which was fairly loosened up at this point. They proceeded to riot a bit and bang up a police car. Then, if my memory serves me correctly, they overturned the vehicle and set it ablaze.
Oops.
All of this action, according to local pundits, was due to Evergreen’s policy of promulgating the three L’s of educational Hell—leniency, licentiousness, and Liberalism. No god-fearing good person would ever turn over a PO-leese car and torch that sucker.
Unless it was a Canadian crowd who’s hockey team just won a Stanley Cup game, that is.
The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Stanley cup. Thousands of revelers thronged the streets of Montreal in celebration. Then, for no apparent reason, rocks started flying and some fires were set. All hell broke out, and at least 16 police cars were burned or smashed and 16 people arrested.
All this from ferociously mild-mannered Canadians, ladies and gentlemen. Normally the meekest folks on the planet.
Strangely, very few of them suffered from the handicap of a liberal arts education, and even fewer had emerged from an evaluation-based grading system that turned them into spawn of the devil.
They did share one quality with Evergreeners, which made them as susceptible to mob psychology as any of us.
They were human.
America, ya gotta love it.