Benjamin Sumner's Website

Certain people instinctively enjoy being loud and confrontational on a stage set for them to angrily express their views. Freedom of speech and the Internet have made this easier to do, and groups that bind together in the name of a cause provide an unapologetic opportunity for the members to scratch these protest itches.

Back in the mid-90s on college campuses, everything seemed right with our world. Never mind that Al Qaeda was plotting to spread fear throughout America and people throughout the world were living under oppressive, murderous governments. Bill Clinton was in office, the stock market was soaring and the U.S. was merely patrolling Iraq for fly-zone violations.

At University of Maryland, College Park, there wasn’t much to be angry about. Sure, there were Lyndon LaRouche supporters handing out pamphlets and poorly-attended anarchist rallies, but nothing to get bent out of shape over, unlike a few decades earlier when Vietnam War protests took hold of the campus.

Some people, perhaps those who had these instincts that I speak of, suddenly found a cause which gave them a chance to socially bind together, carry signs and shout slogans. By golly, there was no Asian-American Studies program at the University of Maryland. It wasn’t a major, and it needed to be, now. (Keep in mind there never was a program for this at UMCP – it was something they simply demanded. The protests would have been vastly different if they were arguing to retain the program).

“Gooks, Chinks, Spicks and Japs, take these labels off our backs!” Yes, they yelled this during their ‘protests.’

<Insert cause here>. Round up students. Make signs. Get together and be loud. Asian-American Studies at University of Maryland was the cause, and the supporters wouldn’t be ignored. There was simply no argument good enough for not having this program. It was their right. It was a violation of their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness not to have these classes on demand.

When people have this passion and enjoy confrontation, they’ll adopt a cause. They’ll decide which side and group of people that they feel more comfortable with. They’ll stretch their view to justify every last point and anyone who disagrees is a racist, regardless of any credentials. They’ll look at the same unbiased facts as their opponents and interpret them to suit their own beliefs. They’ll attend protests, scream in people’s faces, and justify their poor behavior by claiming that they can’t be civil to the terrorist opposition. They’ll make great friends – a necessary bonus – and the cause is suddenly their life. If and when they win, it’s off to another cause, because the itch will return.

I don’t have these instincts to scream in the face of someone who has a different view than me (Though I did attend the Rally for Sanity), but I do have the instinct to analyze the arguments of people like this and dissect the extreme claims they created to support their cause. They call me names when I play devil’s advocate, though what I say doesn’t necessarily contradict the overall issue. You can still agree broadly with a cause but disagree with certain arguments that justify it, or acknowledge that it may have consequences that would need to be addressed separately. But close-minded people don’t want it that way.

Here’s a real-world example, more common and controversial than Asian-American Studies at UMCP. The basic argument surrounding the abortion debate is whether or not a fetus (typically only in the early stages of pregnancy) should have the same rights as anyone else. Either yes or no. If someone says no, that doesn’t necessarily put them on the same page as angry feminists who claim abortion is self defense, pregnancy oppresses and harms women, and that a fetus is nothing more than a parasite. Average pro-choice people reject these ideas, but those who like to scream and protest are more likely to embrace them, then shout them to the world. The same formula happens with other controversial causes, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

When someone is so passionate about a cause, the extremism may not be just about their actual beliefs, but their personal desire for confrontation.

For what it’s worth, there is now an Asian-American Studies program at UMCP. Maybe that slogan put them over the top.