ON THE OBERLIN CONTRETEMPS, JOHN RINGO EMAILS:

One point that none of the commentors seem to be making/noticing is the ‘town/gown’ dynamic.

Oberlin is the classic small liberal college in a less liberal (though still very) town that exists entirely to support the small liberal college.

Thus the jury was made up of ‘townies’ who resent the college, the students and the administration and the college resented that the unwashed townies were ALLOWED to have any input on the actions and deportment of their superiors.

Throw in the many notable examples of the current ‘elites’ being both lacking in competence and unlacking in hubris and you get everything from the protests against an innocent (townie/unwashed/ignorant) baker through the hubristic email. Not to mention a jury that’s about to throw the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary at them.

I’m not getting why others aren’t getting this. The dynamic is obvious to me.

I think that’s exactly right.