blue jeans and democracy

First I have to quibble.  It's not democracy vs communism.  You can have a democracy and still have communism.  Those socialist European countries, that to you tea partiers might as well be communist, all have functioning democracies.  It's communism vs capitalism, and totalitarianism vs democracy.  I do realize that at that time communism was what we called anything that was threatening, the way nowadays we call anybody we don't like a coward, though in fact they may have been very brave.

Just for the sake of argument,  I think you would have to agree that a grammar school is no place for a democracy.  Soon the only reason to go to school would be for the recess which would go on all day. 

I don't know that blue jeans were such a burning issue.  On the other side of 55th Street at dear old Tonti hard by 59th street I can't say it had any import, certainly less than yoyo season.  I don't think we ever had any elections about anything, hence we never became disillusioned with democracy the way you commie ridden Sawyerites did.  Well except for Beagles, who still believed in democracy.  It was just people he became disillusioned with.  I guess not that much has changed, he still believes in these rigid ideals and looks with dismay on the rabble beyond the gates of Beaglesonia.

Long hair was a big deal, back in my hippie days.  People would make fun of you, harass you sometimes.  On certain occasions we were forcibly shorn.  A lot of times people wouldn't hire us because of our long hair.  It wasn't right.  We were discriminated against.  I think maybe we won that battle, we can now walk the streets without hearing, "Hey you, get a haircut.  Get a job.  Join the army," but that hasn't turned the world into the hippie paradise we envisioned.  As a matter of fact it used to be the crewcut construction guys who harassed us student types, and now the student types are generally clean cut while the construction guys look like the Grateful Dead.

Back before the Soviet Union fell apart much was made about how those die-hard commies would kill for a pair of blue jeans.  This made us Americans proud.  If foreigners liked our blue jeans, didn't that mean they liked us, and henceforth our way of life, our democracy, our liberty? 

No it didn't.  They liked us because we were rich, and they wanted to come here and get rich too.  All those huddled masses yearning to be free, were really yearning to be rich, or any rate to be less poor.

Oh I think I was going to say something about bible study.  In fact I saw a reference to it in one your earlier posts but it seems to have been edited out by the time the weekend is over.  I guess I just wanted to say that I didn't see what relevance the bible had to morality to two non-believers like ourselves, and these excursions into the goings on of Ezekial and Jehosphat just seem pointless, and way too long.