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July 28, 2003
Losing Face
This rather alarming story is illustrative of what happens to intelligent people who determine that they'd rather be principled when dealing with middle class people who need to keep their jobs. They lose.
I cannot stand crowds. Crowds are mobs that lack motivation. (Mobs are militias that lack discipline. Militias are armies that lack political legitimacy.) In any case, they are people who are all out to get something, generally in submission to unknown reasons. Part of being Old School means not getting too attached to privileges, and being ready to fight when serious things are threatened, like family. Since I am not a member of the international jet set like John Gilmore, I am more inclined to dismiss his beef, but I admire his principle. He is right of course, but he is fighting for position against a crowd.
I wouldn't be the first person to suggest that Gilmore is rather self-indulgent in his beef with the airlines. It's not as if his inconvenience, not to mention the inconvenience he heaps on his fellow passenger-cattle, amounts to an abridgement of rights. Nobody has any right to have somebody fly you around. Nor is any amount of dignity guaranteed in flight. As a practical matter, his perfectly logical tantrum amounted to a protest which neatly and legally held a plane hostage. Rather clever if you look at it that way. But I rather doubt that was his intent. I'm rather confident that Gilmore would have been satisfied enough to have such a potent story as the article presents, rather along the same lines as the shocking story of the woman whose breast milk was considered contraband. It's certainly more interesting that a stupid political button. Was that his plan? He'll never tell.
Once upon a time, I was searched by FBI agents in front of a busload of people at Logan Airport. Naturally, I was told that I fit the profile of a drug courier. I am inclined to trust my instincts which were screaming fuck you, your airline, and by the way how does it feel to be making an ass out of yourself in front of everyone here? But I have a thousand mile stare that I pull out of my bag of black man's tricks for such occasions. Uppity behavior gets you up i' de tree. Besides, I don't have bail money, and I'm not selfish enough to put my family at that risk for the sake of making a perfect point in the blogosphere.
If Gilmore's antics serve us at all, it will be because he will have won his court cases. I certainly hope he has a legal team of the calibre required for such hijinks. One is reminded somewhat of Plessy. I leave it to the legal scholars to parse the difference. Still, I am struck by the difference between rich libertarians and poor liberals. I often wish the rich libertarians were.
Posted by mbowen at July 28, 2003 11:08 PM
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