Joanna
Carrol Cox wrote:
>A professor here at ISU was visiting the West Bank at the time of the
>first Infitada, and in a talk he gave the other day he gave this
>anecdote to illustrate the amazing solidarity of the Palestinian people
>at that time.
>
>He was standing on a street corner when there was a sudden uproar, and
>down the street came several Israeli soldiers dragging a young man, and
>being followed by a large crowd of Paletinians shouting at the soldiers.
>Suddenly a young woman holding a baby ran up and began to shout and
>curse at the young man, saying "I told you to stay out of the street,
>but you never listen. Now look at the trouble you've caused. I'm done
>with you. I'm leaving for good. Here, you take the baby." And she shoved
>the baby into the hands of the young man and walked off.
>
>After several minutes of deliberations, and a radio call back to their
>headquarters, the Israeli soldiers released the young man. The crowd
>dissipated. The soldiers left. The young man was left scratching his
>head in bewilderment. But then when all was clear, the woman walked out
>of a nearby alley and said, "Give me by baby hack. You're safe now." She
>was not only not his wife, she was a complete stranger!
>
>Incidentally, this is not unrelated to the recent thread on "populism."
>When a mass movement is strong enough, one of the signs is that members
>of it, on their own initiative, _act as though_ they were all receiving
>messages from a central committee and acting in unison.
>
>Carrol
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>