Well-Fed Cattle

There’s an interesting and revealing quote tucked away at the bottom of Ellen Barry’s piece in the New York Times today:

There seemed little concern about that in the huge, swirling crowd, where university students chanted alongside elegantly dressed pensioners. Galina Bogunets, 74, a retired factory worker, said she wanted fair elections and was willing to accept any result that was honest.

“The one who is elected by the people should be in power, and it does not matter who is elected — Zyuganov who I am against, if he is elected by the majority he should be in power,” Ms. Bogunets said, referring to Gennadi A. Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader. She acknowledged that her life was good and that her family was healthy and prosperous. But she said political freedom had evaporated.

“I have always lived well,” she said. “We are not starving, of course, but we were turned into cattle.”

If that’s not the definition of rising expectations, I don’t know what is.