the red army

When I asked how you distinguished a good leader from a bad leader I meant incompetent as well as evil.  If you can determine by yourself whether a leader is incompetent or evil, then what do you need a leader for?  You can just lead yourself.  Why should you listen to some jerk just because he is your sophomore English teacher.  Well of course you should listen to him as far as the English class goes, but it seems like They (the whole school structure) were interfering in our lives beyond the classroom, how to dress, how to act, how to think.  They had this whole rah rah school pride thing they were pushing at us at every opportunity.  I didn't like it.

Later in life I came to the conclusion that it wasn't just the bad guys who were against me, it was everybody. Wait, that didn't come out right! It's not that everybody's against me, it's just that they are not particularly for me. They have their own agendas as I have mine

It sounded like you were saying that everybody, not just some people, weren't going to cooperate with you on your agenda.  Well it's tit for tat.  When you joined with others for the music festival, that didn't mean you were going to vote their way and they yours, or that you were going to cooperate in any other way then bringing about the music festival.  If you hadn't done this there wouldn't be any music festival so you were all winners.

Are you saying that the goal of our (white Americans) predecessors was to dominate the scene (lord it over nonwhites), and that the goal of Others (nonwhites) is to lord it over us whites?  What the hell kind of country do you think this is?  A lot of Americans, I daresay most, but anyway my ilk, never wanted to dominate the nonwhites.  We wanted everybody to be equal.  We still do.  We assume that that is what all Americans, white and non-white, want, so we don't fear at all becoming a minority.  See it's like when we were talking about the Other.  If you fear and distrust them, you will have to assume that they fear and distrust you, but if you don't feel that way about them then you don't think that they will feel that way about you. 

I'm sure that you know that the founding fathers didn't like political parties either, and yet there they were at our second or third election, and there they have been there ever since.  Maybe nobody in Cheboygan has to say what party they are affiliated with, but I suspect everybody knows.  It is silly when some of these local government campaigns take on issues like gay marriage, when all anybody cares about is getting those damned potholes fixed.


The Red Army is a documentary about the Russian hockey team from the cold war until the present.  I know you aren't interested in hockey, but I think we can take it as a metaphor for life.  Okay this guy, I don't remember his name, let's call him
Ivan, grows up in cold war Russia.  His family shares a tiny apartment with four other families, there are lines for everything.  But it's that way for everybody and as Ivan remembers it, we were happy.  He is a good hockey player.  His family sacrifices to buy him a stick and skates and a helmet and all that stuff.  To play on the national team you have to be a member of the army so he joins that.  He loves his family and his country and hockey.

Soviet hockey is different from other hockey.  It is more team oriented, they have systems, they work together, they don't shoot every time, they pass to the player who has a better chance of shooting, or of passing it to a player who has a still better chance.  They come to North America and they whip the NHL.  The North American mouths are agape.  The Soviet team is proud and happy. 

And then, they don't really explain this, the soviet team gets whipped by a bunch of American amateurs in the olympics.  I remember the event, people were waving those tiny American flags and chanting "USA, USA," and I was like hockey, who gives a fuck.  Anyway their lovable bear of a coach is replaced by somebody associated with the politburo, who is a complete asshole, makes them practice all the time, they never get to see their families, just treats them like crap and there is nothing they can do about it. 

Meanwhile Russia loses the cold war.  Things fall apart.  The new Russia is not like the old Russia and Ivan doesn't like it as much.  They go back to America and whip everybody again, but now that the Russia is in tatters, one of the players defects, and then the Americans are bidding for the rest of the Russian players.  Desperate for money the government will let the players go, but they want most of their salaries.  Ivan negotiates, the percentage goes from 90 to 80 to 75, but he can't get it down any further.  Pissed off at this new coach and the politburo, Ivan just quits.

At some point the interviewer asks him if he just thought of defecting, and Ivan says, "Never."  Others make deals and finally they let Ivan go and they are all in America playing hockey.  But American hockey is different than the soviet stye, it is more individualistic, guys shoot instead of passing.  The Russians aren't good at this kind of hockey.  Some guy with the Red Wings figures it out, he hires one, two, three, eventually he gets five Russkies together on the team and they kick ass.  Here is this Detroit team, and it is all Russians, their former enemy, and the fans are wild because they are winning.

After his career is over, Ivan and some of his teammates go back to Russia.  They can't get used to America, and they love their country, even though it is different from what it was, and they love hockey.  They become like head coaches working hand and glove with Putin, and they are happy.

I may have some parts wrong, but I think the general gist is solid.