The Schism, parts 3650 - 3653

 3650. Of all the people there that afternoon it was only Alexis that had no awareness of the danger he was in. It sometimes happens that there exists a naive individual who is entirely unaware of social cast and class, and almost like an idiot, will treat an important personage, and a street sweeper is exactly the same way.

 3651. Some people find this simplicity charming, but to others it is insulting. The phenomena of the inability to distinguish class, cast, and personal importance in others is not always the blind spot of some simple person.

3652. Sometimes the inability or unwillingness to recognize ones superiors as superior is present in people of quite sophisticated intelligence, and in others it has a sarcastic and antagonistic element. But there was no element of antagonism in Alexis, he was simply quite uneducated.

3653. Alexis reached out his arms to place his hands on his opponent’s shoulders in his direct good-natured way but was met with by a brutal punch directly to his face. The blow did not knock his down, but shocked and staggered him. Surprisingly, the blow did not draw blood from his nose, and the upperclassman that had delivered it noticed that his fist felt like he had struck a bronze fencepost.