#877 Kafka’s Last Stand- Vagabond
This opens up in New York during a protest on Wall Street.
The writer does a great job painting a picture of the intensity and emotions of
a real-life street protest. Being at more than my fair share of NYC protests, I
immediately recalled all the sounds and smells of such an event.
“The protestors stood their ground, shouting their demands.
Some of them shouted because their lack of voice had been building in them,
some because their patience had finally run out, some simply because they found
that the sound from their throats converted fear into courage.”
Our protagonist was beaten within inches of her life and
woken up inside a hospital after three days, only to find she was arrested and facing
three years in jail. In the story’s reality, the seventh version of the Patriot
ACT she was:
“…charged with 680 counts of seditious conspiracy to
overthrow legitimate business interests.”
Without her consent or input, the court appointed lawyer
took a plea deal and she is sent to prison and a life of prison-sponsored slave
labor. There is a lot in this that is outright hilarious, like calling the
prison: Sunny Day Prison, or the punishment program Corrective Retail Operation
Confinement (CROC). The latter is a program where those that protest against
capitalism are required to work retail jobs to rehabilitate their wayward
minds.
Like I said there is a lot of hilarity in this, but then there is a lot of outright terror in them as well. As much satire that is in here, there is an equal amount of truth. These programs and laws, and punishments
aren’t all that far off from what happens now in our criminal justice system. Protecting commerce over human
rights is nothing new of course. When the world equates capitalism with
democracy, being against harmful commerce becomes treason.
Notable Passage: “As long as you could find a way to laugh
at the madness, they couldn’t reach you. And if they couldn’t reach you, then
they couldn’t beat you.”
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