Chicken soup for the revolution

By On · 10 Comments · In Revolution

You know how when you’re making chicken soup—real chicken soup, actual from-scratch chicken soup—you have to make stock first? You have to cut up a chicken, and some onions and celery and carrots, and whatever, and you have to throw it all into a big pot and simmer it. You have to simmer it low and slow, for a long time, until it becomes a rich delicious stock. And then you throw it all away. (Well, except for that delicious stock, of course. And you probably fish out the chicken meat. But you get my drift.) The stock is not the soup. The stock is necessary to the soup, but it’s not the soup.

That’s the way I feel about all of this #occupy stuff. It’s the stock. It’s the bubbling, simmering stock that may ultimately be used as a component in a very delicious, progressive, politically efficacious soup. Possibly with dumplings. But to expect the stock to be the finished soup is, if you will excuse me, a recipe for disappointment. And to dismiss the process of making stock as unnecessary and wrongheaded and misguided because it is NOT the soup pisses me off.

That’s all I got to say about that. And now I’m craving soup.

 

 

Share →
  • Victoria Lockyear

    It is occasionally (read that as often) necessary to remind those who ‘run things’ that the rest of us exist, and that we can cause trouble if necessary.  That is indeed politically efficacious and important. 

    And now I want to go home and make more soup.  Soup all around!

    • http://www.demimonde.com M.K. Hobson

      It takes a long time to make good soup. But the results are worth it.

  • Pseydtonne

    I’d like to ask the Occupy Movement which three problems they want fixed. “Capitalism is evil” does not count as a problem — milling around Wall Street only proves capitalism is a fetish.

    They have a group here in Los Angeles now. They’re occupying City Hall — because it’s iconic. That’s not action.

    If someone important came up to the Occupy Wall Street kids and offered to discuss a plan of action on one problem, which would it be? Unemployment? Failure to invest in the economy?

    Yeah, it’s stock and not soup. In fact it smells like very old stock, stock that might have turned.

    • http://www.demimonde.com M.K. Hobson

      Well, it’s coming on winter in NYC, and as we all know, the best way to save stock is to freeze it. 

      (Sorry, I’m just over here torturing a metaphor to death, pay no mind to me.)

  • Veronica Schanoes

    Hmm.  That is not at all how I or generations of women in my family make chicken soup!  We through everything in the pot, cover it with water, bring it to a boil, and let it simmer for 4-6 hours, depending on how rich you want it/whether or not you forget about it, skim the fat off the top if you want to and can be bothered, and then cook rice or egg noodles to put in it.

    That has nothing to do with politics at all. 

    • http://www.demimonde.com M.K. Hobson

      But don’t you at least strain it to get out the bones? I can’t stand bones in my soup. I always strain the stock, pick out the chicken meat and save it (a tedious process) and throw everything else away. I don’t bother to skim the fat until after the stock has cooled and the fat is all in a nice solid lump at the top. Then I skim it off and use it make dumplings. MMM dumplings!

      • Veronica Schanoes

        I don’t strain it, but I do go through it and pick out the bones, the skin, and the more disgusting bits of cartilage.  Everything else I leave in, which means with the carrot and turnip and parsnip and chicken and matzoh balls and suchlike, it’s like a full meal!

  • http://nkjemisin.com N. K. Jemisin

    THIS. Been arguing with people all day about why OccupyWallStreet is a good thing, even if it’s got problems.  Mind if I quote?

    • http://www.demimonde.com M.K. Hobson

      Quote away! So glad it resonated. 

  • Deb Geisler

    Amen. Real change isn’t made in a day or a week or a month. It takes time. It takes a lot of people. It takes small steps – and sometimes, it means two steps forward, one step back, lather, rinse, repeat.

    And even when you make the stock, you have to take some time afterward. Let the stock set up a bit. Skim.  Then you can start adding things in. And even after you’ve added in all of the stuff and it’s churned around a while, the best soup is the *next* day, once everything blends and smooths out.

    A fine metaphor you’ve got here.