Self indulgence

Thomas Sowell does not think very highly of "demonstrators" who are sounding off after the November elections.

What are these "demonstrations" demonstrating – other than adolescent self-indulgence and contempt for the rights of other people to go about their lives without finding their streets clogged with hooligans and the air filled with obscenities? <snip> We are seeing the ugly face of intolerance under the idealistic pretense of protest. We need to recognize it for what it is, even if the media refuse to do so. Above all, we need to see it as a warning of where our society is headed. Whether at home or abroad, if political conflicts are reduced to contests between the wimps and the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.

This hour, Dennis Prager is discussing the fellow who parked his car on the railroad tracks, causing one train to jump the track and collide head-on with an oncoming train.

The fellow had intended to commit suicide by locomotive, and changed his mind at the last minute. When he couldn't get the car moving again, he bailed out and watched the train wreck from a distance.

Now, granted, this person was depressed – possibly clinically so – but the method he chose screamed of self-indulgence and narcissism. Not only did he place himself in the path of an oncoming train, he parked his car, guaranteed to create a mess in the best of circumstances. By golly, he was going to show us all!

Now, for some reason, he's on a suicide watch.