Sometimes the truth just whacks you like a bullet. We live in Sopranos America. The most popular television program is an accurate mirror of what makes America tick. Criminality is the residue of pre-civilized behaviors. As a society loses its civilized attributes, criminals and criminality become more and more appealing because they are "real" and "authentic" as against the artificial and unreliable promises of an orderly civil society.
Tony Soprano is a mobster who has no illusions about how the world works. While bedeviled by the routine difficulties of family life and modern times, he understands that the fundamental logic of his business is brutal aggression and calculated risk. A simple code of gang loyalty and ferocious opposition to rivals keeps his business running.
How is the Bush Administration fundamentally different from the Soprano crime family? Murder, torture, lies, and intimidation are routine tools of the Bush administration. A top capo of the Bush organization, Scooter Libby (nice mob nickname) has just been sentenced to prison for perjury, but the big boss will probably spring him. Welcome to Sopranos America: a society of organized criminals.
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