Hearing about the mob makes me think of Vietnam, where shakedowns by tax collectors and cops, and bribes to politicians, judges and professors, are all standard. With their abilities to extort, kidnap, injure or kill, the mob and government mirror each other, and in any failed or collapsing state, they become indistinguishable or the same. Like a militia, moreover, the mob may be your only protection against the government.
When the state deprives its subjects of natural, basic necessities like alcohol, drugs, paid sex or gambling, the mob fills in. Likewise, when the state fails to protect or keep out unwanted elements. Before the Philly mob was laid low, heroin and black crimes were largely absent from South Philly.
In a healthy, prosperous society, the mob is parasitical and another layer of oppression. In a dysfunctional one, the mob isn't just unavoidable, but essential.
A good buddy of Skinny Razor was Frank "Blinky" Palermo, the famous fight fixer. Dom still remembers how Blinky joked with him, "Hey kid, you want to be the next middleweight champion of the world?" Working behind the scene, the mob could deform reality and mislead the masses, just like the government.
The DC, Wall Street and Hollywood gang has been fixing elections, stock markets, unemployment and inflation figures, daily news and history books, all aspects of our clueless lives, in short. We exist in a staggering unreality conjured up by the biggest and bloodiest mob in world history.
(Article changed on April 1, 2017 at 15:55)
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