October 22, 2005
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North Country Outrage
In memory of Barrington Moore Jr.,
Harvard observer of social folly,
who died on Sunday, October 16Barrington Moore Jr. in 1978 On Moral Outrage:
“People’s organizations, loudspeakers, newspapers, the secret police,
and the courts all swing into action and the campaign is launched. A
reasonably intelligent person, particularly the educated product of
Chinese civilization, which for centuries has stressed the nuances of
moral indignation in a setting of intrigue and bureaucratic protocol,
will know at once just how to adjust facial expressions and tones of
voice in showing the correct degree of indignation for each degree on
the official set of priorities that ranks all possible varieties of the
execrable behavior of the enemies of the people. A poor peasant or
worker cannot be expected to do as well.Worse still, a peasant or a worker may have trouble understanding
why this year’s enemies of the people include some of last year’s
heroes, and why it is necessary to have another exhausting campaign so
soon if the last one was as successful as everybody said it was. But
since socialism is a workers’ and peasants’ state that belongs to the
people, there are lots of people to explain such matters to workers and
peasants, and indeed to anybody else who cares to listen. Furthermore
just about everybody must care to listen. Woe to the person who
stubbornly refuses to listen to the right noises or to try to make the
right noises under socialism, since a socialist state is very efficient
in its allocation of human as well as material resources.”“Come gather ’round friendsAnd I’ll tell you a tale of when
the red iron pits ran plenty….My children will go
As soon as they grow.
Well, there ain’t nothing
here now to hold them.”– Robert Zimmerman,
“North Country Blues,” 1963“Well, if you’re travelin’
in the north country fair,Where the winds hit heavy
on the borderline,Remember me to
one who lives there.She once was
a true love of mine.”– Robert Zimmerman,
“Girl of the North Country,” 1963
Above: propaganda poster of
the 2005 October revolution.The title of the current film“North Country“
was taken from Zimmerman’s
second song above.Apparently Zimmerman’s first lament,
about the iron pits being idle, is not currently in favor with
leftists. It still has validity, however. SeeWhere the Rivers Run North,
by Diane Alden.Alden, who has lived in northern Minnesota,
is perhaps more familiar with its problems than is the New Zealand
feminist Niki Caro (director of “Whale Rider,” as well as “North
Country”).
