mass movements

Geez what a crew you had down there at the paper mill. What manner of men might they be?

There must have been loggers up at the top of Michigan back at the turn of the twentieth century, and probably miners, and I bet they were rip snorting guys back then. The north and the west was were hotbeds of union activism. Well that was then this is now.

Well I was thinking of mass movements. I was thinking about the soviet union. Well you know they had it awful bad, under the czar, awful bad, and it must have felt really good to topple him and toss him and his family into the ditch. And even though those commissars could be a little nutty, and pretty ruthless, still I would guess it made a Russkie proud. They probably felt good marching in those May Day parades waving their red banners.

Then along came WW II, and there was a lot not to like about Stalin, but they were fighting an enemy who didn’t want them to just take off their hats when their leader went by, or speak their language, or submit to some odd economic plan, they were fighting an enemy whose explicit plan was to kill all of them and take their land. And you know what, even with all his shiny weapons they beat him. It took a little while and a huge sacrifice, but they kicked his ass.

So I don’t know, I think when they were standing in those long lines for a head of cabbage, they didn’t feel so bad about it because hadn’t they and their countrymen knocked off the czar and kicked the Kraut’s asses.

But their kids, you know, their kids were like the guys in the paper mill, they just couldn’t get enthused. They didn’t want to sacrifice for Mother Russia, anymore than your constituency wanted to sacrifice five minutes of their break time to vote in Beagles and his reign of truth and justice.

I’m just thinking of mass movements and where do they go. Everybody gets all fired up, and maybe it’s for a good reason and maybe it’s for a bad one, but probably there is no way of knowing that until you know how it all comes out in the end. I just wonder, you see them at one point all marching together and they look so proud and so sure, and the next thing you know they are all wandering around wanting to know if there is any beer left.