last semester, i often visited a great used bookstore — avol’s — that happened to be right next to the kaplan center where i took a gre review course. the selection there is unbelievable and i bought a collection of mike royko’s columns called like i was sayin’… that i didn’t start reading until recently. this edition came out in the year i was born.

just now, at work, i read this column and it staggered me.

Mike Royko: “Write on, Barbarians”
Chicago Sun-Times, December 12, 1979

Robert Maszak, an English teacher at Bloom Township High School in Chicago Heights, has sent me a stack of angry letters written by his students as a classroom assignment.

The students were reacting to a column I wrote last week about eleven people being trampled to death at a rock concert in Cincinnati.

In that column, I said those who would climb over people’s broken bodies to reach a seat in an auditorium could be called “the new barbarians.”

The dictionary definition of barbarian that I used is “the opposite of civilized.” And I think anyone who tramples someone to death can wear that definition.

In sending me the letters, teacher Maszak, apparently proud of his students’ efforts, wrote: “Some ‘barbarians’ do write.”

Yes, they do. But frankly, if I were an English teacher and they were my students, I’d lock the letters away where no one could see them.

I’d be embarrassed if this many juniors and seniors not only wrote incoherently, but also apparently have not been taught to read or to think. I’d also be alarmed by their tribe mentality.

Almost every letter said something like: “Why are you picking on us teen-agers?” and “What have you got against rock music?”

The fact is, I did not use the word “teen-ager” anywhere in that column.

Nor did I say that new barbarians are found only at rock concerts. I wrote: “Rock concerts aren’t the only mass-gathering place for new barbarians. They’ve become visible at sports events, too.” And I described the sometimes violent conduct of sports fans of all ages.

The point of the column was that in many places we now see more and more mindless mob violence and mob mentality. This behavior isn’t limited to teen-agers or rock fans, although there’s probably less of it in your average nursing home.

I shouldn’t be surprised that these kids didn’t notice that. Any kid who gets to be a high school junior or senior and writes like Mr. Maszak’s students isn’t going to absorb details. An example, exactly as written:

“Dear Tenage hater

“I was disappointed by you written on the Who concert. From what you said I can see you have know so called barbarism. You used some strong words in there with very little fact, you say everyone was numbed in the brain. I will say from concert experience maybe half or three forths were high on something or nether but I also know that theres not one forth to half that weren’t. You say everyone was pushing and throwing elbows, did you ever think that some of the thrown elbows were from people who didn’t like getting pushed. You said something about when you were a kid, well times have changed since then.”

Mr. Maszak, is that the best you can do? If so, have you thought of another line of work?

Another sample:

“In Tuesday Dec. 5th edition of Mike Royko you clearly stated that all teenagers and people who go to rock concerts are barbarians.”

I clearly stated nothing of the kind. You really should try to teach them to read, Mr. Maszak.

Or this: “For one think there were no real big popular bands when you were a kid.”

If you are going to let them babble about music, Mr. Maszak, spend a few minutes giving them a little musical background. Or maybe you haven’t heard of the big band era, either.

Then we have this gem. Mind you, it is written by a young man who has spent almost twelve years attending school:

“When you talked us in your paper you called us barbarians. It is even more rude than when you call us delinquents. You cant compare us to 50 years ago because we don’t wear knickers’ and deliver newspapers. All you Old Farts are the same. At Cominskey Park we were just expressing our feelings about disco, because disco sucks. If you write another column like that you will have to answer to me in person.”

And there was the lad who denied being a barbarian. But he spelled it “barbian.”

I can’t go on. It’s too depressing, and not only because most of them can’t write, read, spell, or think—and it’s getting a little late for them to learn.

It’s depressing because almost none even mentioned the fact that eleven human beings were trampled to death. And none sounded concerned about that grotesque fact.

They became highly indignant that someone would be less than worshipful about rock music. They became emotional—even menacing like the above writer—in their hatred for disco music. Some became obscene over imagined slights against teen-agers.

But that eleven people were trampled by a music-hungry mob?

One of the few who mentioned the deaths saw it this way:

“If there were someone yer looked up to and yer went to see them in person and thier were thousands of people just like you and wanted to see him up close would you fight yer way in?”

And as another breezily put it:

“People die every three second. What would you do if you paid $15 for a ticket?”

You’re no barbarian, kid. But try zombie.

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