at the top of it all, and these were the scenes that I actually did find kind of upsetting,

you got the dean, you got the principal.

And there's a scene, I don't even remember which dressing down of a student this is,

where the principal is explaining to somebody, and actually maybe I'm pulling this,

is the principal says various things to different students in various scenes.

But at one point, he's explaining to somebody that,

look, the worst thing you can do is disagree with an adult or descend from authority in any way.

And he said he specifically says, like, regardless of the circumstances or the context.

And that to me, that's so rings true when I think back to like what some of my school experience was. Because yeah, at the top of it all, like you had some teachers who were one way democratic and supportive and whatever. But at the top of it all, there's this principal. He's like Hobbs Leviathan and he like consecrates the whole order. He sits atop of it and he just represents like authority writ large. And he's there to tell you, it literally doesn't matter if you've been treated unfairly by an

authority figure.

This is your lot, you know?

Just obey authority.

That is what this film captures so terrifyingly well.

Well, this principal who looks like a Bill Waterson drawing of a principal, he's at his desk.

And next to him on the wall is a picture of an

American flag waving on a flag pole. It's not even a flag. It's a picture of a flagpole with a flag.

And you know, you just imagine him like looking at that and being so inspired. He's probably got

behind him. Like if you saw behind his desk, I bet he, like, keeps a

picture of the current president and vice president that he rotates out, whoever is a new one.

Yeah. Yeah. There's an early scene where he's arguing with this kid who has had detention because

basically other students were bullying him. They were picking on him. And this kid is arguing, sorry, why should I have to take this?

Like, why can't I argue back?

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