Hemingway - The Butterfly and The Tank

1937 Spanish Civil War Story - from - The Fifth Column - Hemingway - A writer stops in a bar on the way home for a quick drink... I wanted to read a short piece from Hemingway to have a story to go with a fireplace video. I never saw much politics in the stories Hemingway wrote about the Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s. He was up close as a war correspondent, and had open sympathy for the Leftists fighting for some version of worker and popular control of society through direct democracy and cooperation. But, I did not see much about Leftist ideas in some of his stories in “The Fifth Column” and other stories of the Spanish Civil War. I read the shortest. “The Butterfly and the Tank,” seemed like a throw away piece that Hemingway phoned in to meet a deadline. I thought nothing much happened in the brief story. But, having recorded it and put it on a video with a fire place, and put it on Dailymotion, Youtube, and Vimeo, I heard the story again and again. I thought of how many times I had been in bars having political conversations. Just as in the story. Some rough men over react to a foolish gesture in the story. As I listened I realized who they were. Stalinists. I’m not sure if Hemingway realizes who he describes as the shooters in the bar, but they fit the description and work at the airport when Stalinist ruled Russia was the only country ‘helping’ Leftist Spain with ‘experts’ and secret police agents.