Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”
In the classic gangster film, 1931’s The Secret Six, Wallace Beery’s gangster Scorpio delivers a line that captures the psychology of corruption better than any policy paper. After the police raid his operation, Scorpio fumes that he had given ten thousand dollars to the policeman’s charity ball—“like feeding a hungry dog and having him turn around and bite you on the leg.” The line is not just sardonic but incisively diagnostic. Scorpio does not deny his criminality. He is offended because, in his mind, he had honored an unspoken contract. His money was meant to purchase forbearance.
Read Full Article: https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-secret-six-and-the-machinery-of-corruption/
