1 Mei demonstratie in Amsterdam / Demonstration on the first of May held in Amsterdam
Originally uploaded by Nationaal Archief.
Here's a photo that showed up in the rotation on the Flickr Commons front page. It appears to be a march of some sort of Danish Communist Party. A bunch of comfortable-looking, long-haired youth are marching with hammer and sickle flags.
This photo struck me as being especially tragic. Not that I have sympathy for the communists, but because no one does. Most people would think it an evil thing to have participated in a commie rally in the 1970's. I think that even those with an extremely large, bleeding heart would find it something stupid. My ultimate reaction when seeing this was, "Why couldn't they have expended effort on something that could have lasted?"
Suppose they had a conviction that the poor masses of the earth were mistreated. Perhaps if instead they had spent their youth working in the church for John-Newton-style conversions, doing direct charity, educating workers, or even organizing nonviolent admonition of oppressors-- then history might look back on you and smile. Even if you got the same group among your elder contemporaries upset. But expend your efforts on an extreme political party, and history's reaction will range from hatred to extreme pity.
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