Page 70 - The Irony Board

Into the World

Red cell

Is it by chance you arrive
On the scene just as things break?
“But I’m loyal!” you protest,
As they take you for a scab.

This poem and the next look at social upheaval from the non-
participant’s point of view. One branch of sociological theory leans
heavily on analogies between living organisms and the body politic;
Gluckman here extends that metaphor to include an oft-neglected
factor in public life, the innocent bystander.
The circulation of pedestrians in a city may appear random to an
observer, but, like blood corpuscles, each individual has a purpose in
following its path. That purpose, moreover, is subject to pre-
emption by the larger entity. A break in the skin of an animal
triggers a biochemical reaction, causing the blood passing by the
wound to be used to form a scab; those red cells are sacrificed for
the welfare of the whole. In terms of labor unrest, a passerby may
get swept into a strike-breaking riot, be mistaken for an enemy of
the union, and suffer the consequences. The pun in the title and the
question imply an additional irony: unlike the blood cell, social
actors can unintentionally disguise themselves well enough to
receive treatment they do not expect.

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