Something that occurred to me a while ago:

Do you remember Pink Floyd's The Wall - either movie or album? You remember the schoolteacher character, right? You could tell whether anyone was truly young or old by their reaction to that bit - the old people would cluck in disbelief that any teacher could actually be sadistic towards their precious charges, while anyone young enough to remember school would nod, having known at least one such hateful vampire during their time. But, whether you believed such a person actually existed, you understood that the guy in The Wall was the BAD GUY, the guy being an asshole, dishing out physical punishment and mental humiliation to compensate for his own personal miseries.

When did that guy become the hero? When did art students start worshiping that guy, admiring him, wanting to be him and do the exact same things?

On the other hand, this is an age where people can get away with yelling at the President in Congress, where town hall meetings are excuses for mob-think and intimidation, where debate is won not by worth of ideas, but by drowning out opposition with douchebaggery. So maybe I'm the old one, now, and behind the times.