Clinging to small potatos

My old pal Jim (noutopia) writes:

I can't figure out the Wal-Mart employees complacency either. It's some kind of collective death wish. I wish to be ruled. My father, the very humble honey-dipper, would have been red-faced, incensed, and spitting bullets at the thought of being under Wal-Mart's thumb. He would have told his boss to fuck off. But, of course as you point out, there was a vibrant union movement then. Still, he would not have considered that fact one way or the other when in righteous mode. He was proud.

Is that it, personal pride bled out of us?