Monday, May 18, 2015

Young Tsarnaev in " The Jungle " of Upton Sinclair

We seem to have private mental boxes for our own war crimes in the War on Terrorism and the terrorist crimes of domestic terrorists. How is our extravagant state terrorism on a different moral plane from the inhumanity of the Tsarnaev brothers?
Most civilized countries today oppose state executions-even of true moral monsters.Socialists invariably oppose the death penalty not for sentimental reasons ( there is always the Mother in Tears ) but for political reasons : they do not want to strengthen the capitalist state.
A more competent lawyer might have saved young Tsarnaev's life. He should have emphasized the alienation of the immigrant experience in America, contempt for Muslims here and an atmosphere of Islamophobia.
Socialist writer Upton Sinclair wrote about all this more than a century ago in his classic " The Jungle ". Readers might reflect on the different fate of the troubled Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkis who at the end of the book is inspired not by a Holy Book but by the vigorous socialist movement in America in early 20th century.

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