Marx Was Dumfounded?

I don't think that Marx was dumfounded when Russia and Red China went communist since, having died in 1883, he wasn't around to see it happen. Unless, of course, he was looking down from Heaven, which I doubt because he didn't believe in Heaven. All kidding aside, I have always wondered why the Christians put so much faith in faith. I mean, if God and Heaven exist, then they would exist whether anybody believed in them or not. If a tree falls in the forest, and you don't believe that it fell, does that mean that it never really fell? Not bloody likely! It's true, though, that Communism was supposed to follow capitalism in the natural march of history but, for some reason, it didn't.

I remember you asking some time ago about our local Tea Party chapter. I had read about them in the paper from time to time, but I didn't remember a lot of the details. It so happens that there was another article about them in today's paper, which I just now rescued from the garbage can, much to the consternation of my hypothetical wife who is kind of finicky about stuff like that. Anyway, their full name is "Cheboygan Tea Party Patriots/Cheboygan Campaign for Liberty". Sounds like they couldn't agree on what to call themselves, so they compromised by including everybody's suggestions in the title. The group's leader, Stephanie Jacobson, describes them as "a nonpartisan group of citizens that is concerned with the amount of taxation and government overreach at all levels". It says they have a website: http://chebteaparty.org . I haven't checked it out myself yet because I'm too busy writing to you, but maybe I will later when I have a chance.

I didn't think of it at the time but, looking back on it now, I guess I was looking for some kind of mass movement when I joined the army. Maybe that's one reason I was disappointed with army life. Those guys didn't seem to harbor any particular loyalty to their country, or even to the army. If they were loyal to anything, it was to each other. The officers were loyal to the other officers, the sergeants were loyal to the other sergeants, and the peons were loyal to the other peons, more or less. If one of the leaders wanted to inspire you to greater efforts, he didn't say "Do it for your country!", he said "Do it for me!"

 Maybe that's why I've had problems with every organization I've been in, I'm just not into the cult of the personality. If I admire somebody it's for what they do, or maybe what they say, but never for who they are. My favorite classical composer is Richard Wagner who, I understand, was a real prick. He was notorious for not paying his debts, and he borrowed a lot of money in his lifetime. He arrogantly believed that, because of who he was, everybody should kiss his ass and just give him whatever he wanted, no questions asked. If he were alive today, and I knew him, we probably wouldn't like each other, and I certainly would never loan him money. Nevertheless, I like his music, not for who wrote it, but for what it is. Similarly, when Bob Dylan started doing rock music, I stopped buying his records. Nothing against Dylan the man, I just don't like rock music.

Maybe that's where all those mass movements go off the rails. They start out with a bunch of people who all believe in the same things, but eventually a leader emerges who tries to slip his personal agenda in there. Some of the members follow him off on a tangent, while others try to stay true to their founding principles. Then again, sometimes they originally formed around a popular leader and, when he dies, it just isn't the same anymore.