Let me ask you a question you may not have considered: Who is the law designed to protect? The powerful and the well-armed don’t need protection. The framers of the constitution devised all those artful measures for managing our differences precisely to overcome the age-old tyranny of the strong over the weak.
You are students at an elite university in upscale Westchester County. How many of you have been in a fight? Punched someone in the face? Fired a gun? Killed anything larger than a bug? Do you really want to start a fight with millions of NRA members living in the middle of the country, people who keep a rifle in their pick-up and go hunting every weekend? These people, who may live 100 miles from the nearest sheriff’s station, can fend for themselves. Can you?
Your rhetoric about violence may push the country closer to rampant lawlessness. Perhaps that gives you a thrill of transgressive titillation. But if open conflict comes, it won’t be a game for the amusement of children playing at “war.”
A cynic who thinks you should face the consequences of your juvenile fantasies might paraphrase Menken by saying, “Give the students what they want – good and hard.” I won’t be that cynic. Instead, I’ll urge you to think carefully about what civil breakdown looks like. You may see it soon enough in Zohran Mamdani’s New York. You may be wishing for more law enforcement — even from the federal government — before too long.
Your posturing about violence is thoughtless and dangerous. The rule of law exists to protect people like you, and when it breaks down, the people most likely to get hurt are you.
Cut it out.
— Diodotus in Playing ‘War’ at Sarah Lawrence