Many years ago, I spoke to a group of labor leaders. I talked about labor history, and how we all love and revere the movement of yesteryear. I talked about how we worship and adore the era of workers rising up against the machinery of the status quo and the heroes who emerged as leaders of those movements.

And then I told them that if we are not cautious, that the next worker uprising will be against us. I warned them of the dangers of becoming so intertwined into the fabric of the establishment that the working class may not readily be able to discern the difference between the two.

For the record, my speech that day was not well received. In fact, come to think of it, a pretty long period of time elapsed before they ever asked me to say anything to a group again. But that doesn’t make it any less true, even if they didn’t want to hear it.