Around 13:30? Was your take that they were misunderstanding him and cheering approvingly at the huge stupid lane-blocking SUVs with religious or patriotic stickers?
I had the opposite take. They got him and were cheering his rant.
You've misunderstood somewhere. The audience was cheering his rant, and he chides them for it. His message was to not think like the way he was in his rant.
Or, in keeping with the content: did you consider that you might have misunderstood?
Personally I took it the same way some other commenters did: the audience is plenty well educated to understand his point, but they were cheering the masterful description, and he was riffing.
Guy's dead, so we'll never know, but hopefully we can learn the lesson he was offering and not be so self-righteously confident when engaging each other about something that could be interpreted two ways.
It's quite interesting how many nuances and interpretations a close reading provides.
> I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV’s and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, 40-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest [responding here to loud applause] — this is an example of how NOT to think, though — most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers.
I was in masterful description - riffing camp, but I can see what jstx1, bmj, Nition see.
He's angry in traffic. The audience cheers were are also angry in traffic. He gently, in a joke, says wait the point is not to be angry in traffic. Very plausible reading.
> Or, of course, if I’m in a more socially conscious liberal arts form of my default setting, I can spend time
There was no applause at the previous example:
> And who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line.
It's the "more socially conscious liberal arts" bit, being delivered at a liberal arts commencement ceremony to an audience that gets the joke.
