For the love of God...

are the mob that I have previously named the “Laptop Anonymous”…..no explanation necessary….of course, they would never say their written words to another person because they are cowards, feeding on the banquet of, " misery loves company". One is warned when going to the zoo…“Please don’t feed the animals”…..which translates for the common folk as, “Please don’t read the comments”.

and probably lack remaining brain cells to get into this at this hour, but this was the first issue I raised in a comment upon joining BSD in Nov last year. I asked where all this hate came from; I was either sheltered by being un-connected via media or assumed it was the same simple rivalry stuff we knew in my day when the Penn State-Pitt rivalry was as bitter as they came. Have spent alot of time thinking about it, as a mere observer vice anyone schooled in the social dynamics behind it, but a few things have emerged that trouble me:

-A colleague, and a good honest guy, related that we DO rub some outsiders the wrong way with what they see as an “in your face” attitude with our “We Are” mantra. “We Are” didn’t exist or was just starting when I was a senior, and it took me awhile as an alumn to get on board with it. To many it apparently says “We’re better than you, we know it, and shove it”. That’s just one outsider’s take and a for-what-its’-worth.

-The reality that we ARE “better” than “them” by virtue of the inarguable success of the grand experiment, and very much perceived that way. It’s hard to be humble when you’re both virtuous and successfull, but the constant reminder of this to the football factory (e.g. SEC) schools is no small source of irritation.

But the above things talk to a reason for distaste, dislike, or even rivalry-like trash-talk from a competitor, not the kind of hate that literally turns your stomach when you lose your way and end up in an E$PN comment section. That, I am coming to believe, is a culmination of the hair-trigger communication means others have mentioned (an ISP), and something more insidious I can only classify as class-warfare and a lack of societal discipline. There are no consequences for one’s words anymore. We are at the same time so protected by our ‘rights’ yet so free to trample others without accountability, that we lose our own sense of who we are. And what’s more, we don’t care. Flash mobs are but one of the more visible products of this. It’s “power” without responsibility, and excercising that power makes people feel good, the victims be damned.

But there’s more to it than that in our case. It’s something about Penn State itself; witness the wholly different reaction to the SadExcuse…er, Syracuse, ‘scandal’. A classmate of mine suggested it’s Joe himself, in which case I’m inclined to say, bring it on. As Joe might say, Res ipsa loquitur….let the facts speak for themselves.

My long-overdue conclusion is two-fold: we have a social media-enabled vocal minority made up of many raised under a different standard of personal behavior than the majorty of us, encouraged by a revenue based MSM enterprise with no moral compass that will out-weigh their balance sheet. In other words a large segment of society has been convinced since elemntary school that it’s a victim of something, someone owes them for that, and they’re going to aim their shots at the brightest star in the sky in retaliation. In college sports, Penn State has been that bright star for….oh about 61 years. With that I’ve probably violated the no-politics rule, as well as the key stroke limit. I still can’t fathom the sheer hate, but the memory of the `86 team arriving at the Fiesta Bowl in dapper college-man duds to meet the fatigue-clad, trash-talking Hurricanes might serve as an good back drop as to how Penn Staters might consider dealing with the issue.