Marxism For Dummies (5)

Complicity is easy for the Right,

one single flag to which they all adhere --

“someone might steal my loot”.  This primal fear

prompts pistols under pillows, sleepless nights

and riot cops.  Who needs a Stagyrite?

But Lefties hold their differences dear.

Each Keeper of the Flame is more sincere

than Cash-Is-Trash-ists, Ogden Nash-ists, quite

apart from Crypto-Fascists, Widow’s Mite

Apologists, Red Guards, or those who steer

by Stalin’s light (Stakhanovites).  It’s clear:

you’d never have a play without a wright,

and so each faction finds its Miller Lite:

Kropotkin, Castro, Kopp -- who’s cool this year?

Author's Note

Complicity -- Conservatives tend to stick together, because they have only one true motive (to hang on to their money)
Who needs a Stagyrite? –- The great philosopher Aristotle was known as “the Stagyrite”, his native home being Stagyra. The sense here is, “conservatism doesn’t need a brilliant arguer – it speaks for itself”.
Ogden Nash –- American poet (1902-71), famous for his amusing light verse. A symbol here of those who satirise society without doing anything to change it.
Widow’s Mite Apologists -- In the Bible (Luke 21:1-4) a poor widow gives a tiny sum of money to the church, and Jesus approves. The people who are criticized in this reference are those who patronize the “lower classes”.
Stakhanovites -- Stalin’s propaganda machine made a Russian hero of Stakhanov (see photo), an obscure miner who worked hard to produce more coal than his quota required of him. Stakhanovites are those who slavishly obey the government out of a misguided sense of patriotism.
Kropotkin –- Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) was a prominent Russian Anarchist.
Kopp -– A sincere Belgian socialist who fought bravely for the Leftist cause during the Spanish Civil War, but was liquidated by Stalinists.