Colonel Sanders and his chicken

Yes, it sucks that the bus drivers went on strike. Transit, aside from my functioning legs, is my primary form of transportation. I don’t own a car. But I support the union (as do many, many other Transit users), for a simple reason: this world of ours is divided into two groups, servants and masters. Over 90% of us are born into the servant class, very few are born masters. The union (servant class guild) is fighting the master (ruling political elites, supported and enabled by socioeconomic elites outside the formal political system). Yet the most vitriolic hatred of unions – which, we should remember, exist because of the greed, unscrupulousness and ruthless evil of the master class – tends to come from members of the servant class. There are lots of psychological explanations for this pathetic phenomenon, but my favourite way to understand it is by way of a metaphor I heard a long time ago.

You see, servant class people are like chicken, and Colonel Sanders is like the master class. Some of the chickens are convinced that Col. Sanders is evil and up to no good. But among the chickens there is a sizable, uninformed group that insists – regardless of the evidence – that Colonel Sanders is good, noble, and treats his chickens well.

Please – before you spout off about how awful unions are, ask yourself: as a chicken, is it really in my best interest to defend Colonel Sanders? —Anti-Authoritarian

This article appears in Feb 2-8, 2012.