August 21, 2003

Rules are for the peons, pt. 244788

Proof that rightwingers are just as susceptible to Iamthecenteroftheuniversitis as any of the hated Babyboomer tribe, NRO's Jonah Goldberg recounts his tribulations and sufferings on a jaunt to a national park, where he was forced to submit to -- horrors! -- rules and regulations governing speeding and unleashed dogs, just like all the little people. After this I expect silence from Mr. Goldberg on the subject of how the lack of personal accountability in today's society is all the fault of those evil liberals.

(Via Scott Chaffin.)

Posted by Andrea Harris at August 21, 2003 07:29 PM
Comments

I thought it was especially moral of him to flip the rangers off on the way out, too. Normally I like Goldberg, but on this one he's just wrong.

Posted by: ilyka at August 22, 2003 at 04:06 AM

It's funny how different people read the same words in different ways. I saw Jonah's little story as a rant against imperious, self-important, arrogant employees of state parks, (paid with taxpayer dollars), who treat visitors (uh, taxpayers) with utter contempt. He did apologize, and they saw it as a sign of weakness.

heh heh

Posted by: Mr_Kentucky at August 22, 2003 at 06:10 PM

And we only have Mr. G.'s word for it that they were "imperious, self-important" and "arrogant," rather than doing their job -- and having to cope with a boorish park visitor who had deliberately flouted several rules to do things that they could have done by the side of the road.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 22, 2003 at 09:22 PM

Gotta disagree with ya on this Andrea,

Maybe it's too many run-ins with self-important government employees, but I side with Jonah on this one. All too often, these people forget who their customer is. I've never believed that "the customer is always right", but any organization that forgets that they have customers is going to a hated bureaucracy in the public sector and out of business in the private sector.

Posted by: JFH at August 23, 2003 at 04:50 PM

And I repeat, all we have is Goldberg's word for it that they were rude, arrogant, and so on -- and the impression that it was in fact Goldberg who was the self-important and pushy one I got from Goldberg's own account. You know, government employees are human too; and not all government institutions and regulations are evil, misguided, or unwarranted. Your disagreement is noticed and dismissed.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 23, 2003 at 05:45 PM