People who condemn the periodic violent outbursts of poor communities have not seen the long-range (and we’re talking decades and centuries), the long-range positive changes made in response to violence by the classes which govern.

Democracy, socialism, progressive streams–all these listen to past violence and injustice, and eventually institute structural changes which benefit the herd.

“And God heard their cry from heaven.” That was how one Hebrew writer described it, described that process of the herd listening to its own pain and eventually developing new structures.

The need to save face sometimes prevents one generation of primates from making necessary adaptations. So for a while our primate instinct for order prevails. There is no apparent change.

That doesn’t mean the kids aren’t listening and watching and thinking. Their parents may not be able to change, but “the next generation” will have their turn at bat, as they say. That baton will be inexorably passed on.

No one sacrifices in vain. Our larger populations eventually institute necessary structural changes. Some describe it as God hearing our cries from heaven. Others describe it as political evolution, or as social evolution. Those labels make a difference, but they are only labels.

Your sacrifices may not bear fruit immediately, but you do matter. Your name may be forgotten, but you have made a difference.

You may lose a battle, you may lose a war. But next time around, during the next war, some of “them” are going to say to themselves, “Remember what they did last time? If we don’t want a repeat of that fiasco, we need to give them what they want this time.”

It’s a generational version of The Parable of the Unjust Judge, who finally granted the woman what she wanted just to be rid of her.

Now some of us need to believe that a once-and-for-all victory can be attained. Others seem to think that our struggle is a perpetual one. I used to be in that first group.

This difference in expectations will always be with us. Sometimes I used to call it idealism vs realism, other times hope vs cynicism. Those can be loaded words. Right now I prefer to avoid evaluation.

It is what it is, as my kids say.

Sometimes we need to celebrate a species of diversity we detest. That’s the nitty-gritty of Yin Yang, of Jesus having flocks we don’t know about.

That Jesus saying, the one about having another flock, one we don’t know about, that other flock is basically any group we despise or feel really, really superior to.

You may know where this is leading. What group of people do you feel justifiably superior to? Yeah, those people. That group is one of Jesus’ many flocks.

Kinda sucks, doesn’t it. Yeah, that whole damned flock, they belong to Jesus, too.