This week we review Once Upon A Time in Argentina by Frank Kidd
“Today, boys and girls, we are learning about diversity. Can anyone tell me why it's wrong to use N***** to describe Terrel?” my boss asked.
He didn't say this, but it's what I heard. My mind's ear again.
I make eye contact with Terrell. He had heard it, too. I feel vindicated. Maybe my boss did say it.
Ryan McGowan is a former Marine Raider living a life of quiet desperation in the corporate 21st century. After some dropping-out, beach-bumming, and boxing practice, a shady former Special Forces guy recruits him for a small mercenary organization going to the far southern Atlantic coast of Argentina to punish illegal Chinese fishing. Speedboat piracy!
So, Ryan goes from the hell of a modern, feminized corporate workplace to the ultimate male fantasy, which is like, man, I just hang out with my boys. We sit by the fire and drink beer and lift weights until it’s time to get on our pirate boats and go lay the hate on some evildoers.
Here we are in the 21st century, where there’s no frontier left to run off to anymore. The last lawless zone is the high seas, where there are no crimes. It’s the law of the jungle.
But you know what beats the jungle? The gang. The tribe beats the jungle. That's the whole story. Men burn out the jungle. We make farms, we take wives, we build cities. Men that are loyal only to each other. The gang turns the jungle into a city, and the city into a state. And when the state gets too big, it turns everything back into a jungle. And then it starts all over.
Mentioned in this episode: The Executioner / Mack Bolan (Don Pendleton, 1969), and The Art of Not Being Governed, James C. Scott on Zomia.
Join us next time for The Domes of Calrathia by Isaac Young.
