ICE Agents and "The Blue Caps"

 AN OLD TACTIC used by authoritarian governments is to recruit poorly educated, or just plain poor, young men who'd otherwise be adrift in life, give them authority and a badge, usually also a gun, and send them out as enforcers of regime rule. They're almost guaranteed to be obedient, loyal, and ruthless.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn describes this in a chapter in Volume I of his massive work about Soviet prison camps, Gulag Archipelago, "The Blue Caps." Here's an excerpt:

Their branch of service does not require them to be educated people of broad culture and broad views-- and they are not. Their branch of service does not require them to think logically-- and they do not. Their branch of service requires only that they carry out orders exactly and be impervious to suffering-- and that is what they do and what they are. We who have passed through their hands feel suffocated when we think of that legion, which is stripped bare of universal human ideals.

Is this a parallel to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in the United States now?

The Big Zohran Mamdani Question

 THE BIG QUESTION right now regarding Zohran Mamdani is when he'll sign a big book contract with a "Big Five" conglomerate publishing outfit, following the lead of so many other prominent "leftist" figures, from Malcolm Harris to Bhaskar Sunkara to the gang at n +1 who cashed in with big advances as quickly as possible.

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED

These characters are anti-capitalist-- sure they are-- but take no chances the capitalist system won't vanish anytime soon, so are taking their slice of the pie now, up front. After all, it might take time for "late stage capitalism" to play out. Could be twenty years. Or 100. Or longer.

Needless to say, they're closer to being Kerenskys than Lenins. The irony is Curtis Sliwa is way more a Lenin type, forming his own tough-minded vanguard group from the ground up while working outside the system.

The jury of course is still out on Zohran Mamdani. It remains to be seen what path he will take. This blog will keep you informed!

What Does It Cost to Support Indy Art?

 Please see the New Pop Lit News post about a film project based on a short story by Tom Ray originally run at New Pop Lit.

A "Fictional" Short Story About Elon Musk

 WHICH would be my only real short story written in 2025 (disregarding flash pieces and a novella):

"THE ADVISOR."

This is what relevant fiction looks like. An honest look at today's hyper-insane world.

Latest Movie Review

 HERE'S my latest movie review at IMDB-- more a rant than a review-- this one about the 2024 film "A Complete Unknown." You can read the review here.

This Blog's Reach. . .

NOT EVERYONE KNOWS that twenty years ago this blog was at the center of a plagiarism scandal in Somaliland. Which is not the same as Somalia. (Somalians in America have been in the news of late, c/o our ever-distracting man in the gilded Oval Office.) Anyway, the link is here. 

Consumers, Critics and Context

 EVEN literary critics are mere consumers, in that they seldom question the context of a product. Like buying a music cd back in the day and never wondering about the company that made it, who produced it, or how it was made. Or the system or systems within which those persons and entities existed. The economic and technological superstructure. 

The same today with streaming. YOUR job is simply to consume the content.

Who owns the content? Who allows it? Who profits?

We're not supposed to glance at context.

To be fair, today a lot of us glance at context. You can't help it. The "stars" of our current era are the owners themselves. Personalities like Elon Musk. The only way he can keep the investment bubbles that are his companies inflated is by selling himself as engineering genius. People buy that. Same way so many buy the notion of our current President as political genius. Another confidence-based inflated bubble.

It's all salesmanship.