Differences - Similarities

After about two months of reading I've finally finished the abridged version of Gulag Archipelago by Alexsander Solzhenitsyn. It brought to life some of the worst cruelties of history and made me appreciate the justice system we have here today.

In Stalin's day, anyone could be picked off the street or dragged from bed by the NKVD at any time for any reason. After arrest,torturous investigations and a cramped jail cell would follow. Inevitably, the detainee would land in a labor camp to be worked to death or picked over by their fellow "zeks" for every last bit of wealth. Those boots with a hole in the toe? Gone.

It was completely brutal.

We have fair trials and humane living arrangements that would have been close to paradise for the zeks, but I noticed a few similarities between that system and our own.

There are still many inmates who have no respect for their fellow man and will many times exploit whoever they can. Also, the guards (not all, but more than a few) relish their power and will abuse it at a moment's notice. Usually it's only in small ways that cannot be countered with a complaint, but the abuse it there.

Finally, like the gulag system, the Texas prison system operates at near maximum capacity. I assume it's so that no money is wasted on running facilities that aren't full, but there are many guys in prison who shouldn't be there and the parole board has not been rewarding positive changes with release.

I was very glad to read Gulag, but it's time to read something a bit happier. I just started The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, and though it has some crazy stuff in it so far, the writing about nature puts a smile on my face.