Unfair Harvard, or The Rich Have Sharp Elbows

Here's a thing that happened:

A young man who was in the high school improv troupe with my older daughter is in an improv troupe at Harvard.  Last night his troupe was having a free performance with special guest Keegan Michael Key.

I wound up being the unpaid transportation from another teen obligation miles away (I call my service "Unter"), so I went along to the event. We were told to get there early, as there was sure to be a crowd.

We arrived at 6:50 for an 8 o'clock show. We got in line--I'd say we were about 200 people back, and the auditorium holds 350. Great! 

We stood there as more and more people got in line behind us. The line wrapped around in a U shape until the people who arrived about 7:15 were standing just a few feet away from the beginning of the line.

When the doors to the auditorium opened at 7:20, the Harvard students ignored the line and rushed the doors in a chaotic mob.

To make a long story short, we stood crushed in a mob of rich kids for about half an hour and ultimately didn't get in. 

Now, this is far from a tragedy and not even an outrage. 

But it did disturb me. 

Here's why: I know not everybody who goes to Harvard is rich.  But I do know this: 35% of Harvard students receive no financial aid for the $64k tuition. Harvard has a 32 billion dollar endowment. The great majority of Harvard students have enjoyed lives of tremendous privilege. They are surrounded by the best facilities of any university and the top minds in their fields. In a few years, they will be running the country and the world.

And they nearly trampled me to get into a free show.

It shouldn't surprise me, given how the oligarchs in our country behave, that their children act the same way. But it was striking to get such a naked example of the values the wealthy in this country impart to their children: take what you can grab, and the hell with everybody else; and rules are for suckers.  

There's an implied social contract in a line, but screw that--come in late and shove your way past all the suckers who are dumb enough to follow the rules. Harvard students have clearly learned their parents' ethics well.

I'd say it was shameful, but you can't shame the shameless.