Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal had large photos on their front pages yesterday of student thugs attacking the police in London (framed by\u00a0a huge graffiti scroll \u201cREVOLUTION\u201d), Rome, and Bologna to \u201cprotest\u201d tuition and education cuts.\u00a0 What a boon to anarchy\u2014having your self-righteous tantrums treated as important and newsworthy.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how to break out of the dilemma that all such preening displays of lawlessness pose.\u00a0 Ideally, they would not command any breathless coverage from reporters who come running, cameras flashing,\u00a0at the slightest hint of revolt against the \u201cestablishment.\u201d\u00a0 Pretending that such theatrics are significant is especially galling when the protesters are ignorant students who don\u2019t understand anything about the world and certainly not about work and commerce.\u00a0 Yet at some level one does need to know\u00a0 what is going on.\u00a0 Perhaps photos of riots against common-sense government\u00a0reforms or good-faith police actions could be balanced by photos of businessmen struggling to balance their books while drowning in a sclerotic, state-sodden economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal had large photos on their front pages yesterday of student thugs attacking the police in London (framed by\u00a0a huge graffiti scroll \u201cREVOLUTION\u201d), Rome, and Bologna to \u201cprotest\u201d tuition and education … Continue reading