Listening to Johnny Paycheck.

 I just had the weirdest dream.

 I dreamt that Johnny Paycheck - the singer as Johnny Paycheck the singer, not him playing someone else nor someone playing him - had a show on the Other Side of the Country. Before he left, though, he got drunk (which wasn't unusual for him) and pissed off (again, not unusual) and decided to go tell "Them" off.

 Who "Them" were was ephemeral. Call them big business or corporate America or politicians too distanced from the people they serve to the elites or clickbait obsessed media or the military-industrial complex or megachurch pastors or just whoever "They" were, he was going to Tell Them Off. And though it never came up in my dream, though he was Johnny Paycheck, he was indeed going to tell the Foreman and the Line Boss to "Take This Job & Shove It."

 Now here's where it gets weird. While drunk, he posted his intentions on Social Media. I don't remember which Social Media if it was indeed one of any note, but he definitely died before Social Media was as ubiquitous as it is now. But for whatever it's worth, he died about a month before Friendster existed, about seven months before MySpace was a thing, and a full year before Facebook was launched. I don't know if any of that means anything, but there you are.

 So he heads off to his gig on the Other Side of the Country, and at the first stop he makes, a group of people who read his online jeremiad give him a "right on" and pledge to follow him. Johnny Paycheck being Johnny Paycheck says, hell, why not, the more the merrier. I'm not sure where I fit in as an observer and chronicler. My role was like Tom Wolfe's in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, just a fly on the wall and not someone of importance. Maybe I was a roadie or a Captain Midnight-like figure, it doesn't

matter.

 Anyhow. Everywhere he stopped - and he stopped everywhere - he picked up more and more people who wanted to tell "Them" off and let "Them" know they were mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Along the way, he began to write a Manifesto about why he felt "They" needed telling off. Every day the Manifesto grew bigger and more radical and angrier and, well... less based in reality.

 Eventually, he started letting his followers speak and make declarations to tell "Them." Some were tired of poverty and homeless and hunger that is allowed under capitalism. Some were tired of the disparity between the rich and the poor, and how the System not only allowed it but encouraged and protected that philosophy. Some were concerned about the loss of Constitutional Rights, not just the First or Second Amendments, but the Fourth and the Sixth and the Fourteenth and other Civil Rights Amendments.

 Some were upset about the oppression of the country's labor force and how they were kept in a state of permanently being behind on bills so the Boss could live fat, and they were tired of all the Foremen and Line Bosses who took a little more crumbs to keep that a reality. Some were mad at how the police weren't around to help but to enforce Society's rules and, in doing so, were allowed to run wild with no responsibility or accountability. Some were tired of the big businesses taking advantage of migrant labor to drive down wages and how society had decided that shooting someone whose cell phone goes off in a theater was a reasonable, if extreme, course of action.

 Eventually it got dark. Johnny Paycheck's Manifesto got darker and the speakers from the people following him got uglier. Some were mad because migrant workers represented the Wrong Kind of People coming into the country and making it worse somehow, and they were doing it on purpose. Some were mad that we'd gotten away from the Baby Jesus and thought we needed to make us start going again to church again, or at least living like they said we should live. Some were mad that lawlessness and fear and desperation had caused some to clash with the Forces of Order, especially when those Forces killed people for no real reason than, as far as anyone reasonable could tell, the color of their skin, and that maybe we should remind "those people" where their place in Society really was.

 I saw it and so did plenty of others, but their dissenting voices were ignored or shouted down or threatened with violence. This happened more and more. It went from reasonable disagreement to dark threats of punishment, with more and more people taking the side of the latter. People who thought the crowd was going in the wrong direction were deciding that maybe it was best and safest if they kept quiet and do what they were told, and in any event, didn't the Majority kinda, sorta have a point?

 Johnny Paycheck saw this, too. He saw the growing darkness in his intentions to tell "Them" to "Take This Job & Shove It," and it concerned him greatly. Also, he was mostly concerned with the gig on the Other Side of the Country because that's what he was, a singer and entertainer, and bringing people happiness through his music was what was important to him. He was still intent on telling "Them" off and knew the people's anger was righteous, but he was concerned about where it was going and what it might do when it got there.

 So long as he was sober. When he was drunk, he didn't give a damn. He enjoyed the acclaim, even if he was becoming less important and more just a figurehead to other's concerns and plans. So he stayed drunk a lot because it was easier than facing reality. And since it helped them along, people conspired to keep him as drunk as possible as much as possible, because it was easier than facing themselves. And his Manifesto got weirder and the people got angrier and more frightened and less inclined to buck the group. Fixing things was no longer an issue. Letting "Them" know they were angry was much more important, and God help you if you suggested otherwise in the wrong company. It was getting harder to figure out who was the right company and maybe it no longer mattered.

 And then I woke up. I don't know why I dreamt any of this. I don't know why I conflated current events and situations to periods of time where they didn't exist and we're at such a forefront. I don't know why Johnny Paycheck, of all people, was the locus of all this madness and anger and confusion. Much as I dig me some Johnny Paycheck, he's hardly a revolutionary figure.

 I don't know if it means anything at all and it was just a silly dream I had because I'm weird about country music and American politics. Something to think about, though.