RARA-AVIS: Re: The Ax
J. Alec West (alecwest@pacifier.com)
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 04:27:17 -0800 (PST)
Kimberly,
One of the things Don mentioned in the interview was his
association
with Al Nussbaum ... a convicted felon who eventually won his
release
and went on to become a journalist/writer. Don said Al spoke of
the
criminal mentality ... that, in order to commit a crime, a
criminal has to
think of his victim as a "thing" ... that as soon as a criminal
starts
thinking of his victim as a person, the criminal can't "do it"
anymore.
Nowadays, we live in a corporate world ... and Don said no one
ever
defined "corporation" better than Mark Twain, quote, "A
corporation has
neither a brain to think with nor an ass to kick." He said
corporations
treat people like "things" ... parts to be used and, when no
longer
needed, discarded into the scrapheap. And, when people are
treated that
way, they feel "victimized" no less than people who have been
victimized
by a criminal. Since corporate (if you will) "crime" cannot be
policed,
some people (like Burke Devore) feel they must take the law
into their own
hands in order to find redress.
While reading _The Ax_, and for my own comfort <grin>, I
imagined Burke
Devore to be like a man in the wilderness ... a wilderness with
no
cavalry, no marshall, no sheriff ... confronted by the
corporate crime of
depersonalization (a crime with no penalty to the corporation).
And, to
survive in a lawless wilderness, people must make their _own_
laws. And,
in Devore's case, survival was the highest of those laws. Mr.
Westlake is
a very astute sociologist <grin>. I not only think _The
Ax_ should be
considered for a Pulitzer, I also think it should be made
required reading
for anyone pursuing a degree in business administration
(especially those
who plan on specializing in human resources management).
P.S. Note my last 3 words above <grin>. I remember a
time when people
applied for jobs in the "personnel" department. Nowadays,
"Personnel"
departments are called "Human Resources" departments.
Corporations have
taken the "person" out of "personnel" ... and demoted its
workforce to
consideration as a mere "resource." Though it didn't make the
published
interview copy, Don and I discussed the Unibomber. True, the
Unibomber
has serious psychological problems. But, if you read between
the lines of
his psychosis (in his "manifesto"), a lot of sociological
truth emerges.
I suggested that the Unibomber, if you will, is Burke Devore
taken to the
extreme. Don liked the analogy <grin>. Later.
J. Alec West
alecwest@pacifier.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~alecwest
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