But do phlegmatic types make good revolutionaries ?

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  Eric Patton • 

  
  

   " For a site that is otherwise excellent, you all can be so full of piss and vinegar sometimes. "

  
  

  
  
  
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  But do phlegmatic types make good revolutionaries ? Was it Chairman Mao who said : " The revolution is not a tea party " ?
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  I am not turned off by " middle class civility " in any case. 
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  Way back in tumultuous 60s the local "Trots " were famous for wearing suits and ties, short hair, speaking and writing standard English, and a drug free life style - at least when running for governor or senator. Yet THEY were the real revolutionaries and they were a key to the success of the anti-war movement.
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  But back then I was also fond of those talented rebels Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman and talk about " piss and vinegar " , " Revolution for the Hell of It ".
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• [ " You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home. "
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•                                     ABBIE HOFFMAN quote
  

  But Lenin was right anyway: " Ultra - Leftism is an Infantile Disease ".
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  Poor Abbey committed suicide ( so thought William Styron in his book on depression " Darkness Visible " ) and Jerry Rubin sort of sold out. 
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  So many YIPPIES evolved into YUPPIES
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