Ruling – Page 10 – Everything

Ruling

In ’37 Stalin made a hash
Of party loyalists and army brass.
Decimation: One in ten are shot.
What’s the word when one in ten are not?

Jan 042021
 

When the numbers don’t come out as you would like, the first resort is to change the way you count; the second is to stop counting.

Dec 302020
 

The distinguished Soviet geneticist Vavilov was unpersoned for refusing to reject heredity in favor of the neo-Lamarckism championed by Lysenko and Stalin, and I feel fortunate to live in a country where nothing like that could ever happen.

Dec 032020
 

The omnipotent state regards not the individual, but the family, as its most dangerous enemy. The individual it can use; the family it can do nothing with.

Nov 202020
 

Every new law represents a new opportunity to report our neighbors anonymously to the authorities.

Nov 092020
 

The great trick of governance, as yet imperfectly mastered, is to loot without having to fight.

Nov 062020
 

The lower your class, the more time and humiliation it costs you to collect your dole.

Oct 212020
 

There are people who understand the power of speech, and people who oppose restrictions on speech, but rarely the same people.