Many of us who are doing this form of political writing — the kind that is not “saleable” — are either doing the writing in our dminishing spare time, or as part of a hand-to-mouth existence. I am one of the latter. I don’t have a regualr job, and I don’t want a regular job. That doesn’t mean I don’t work. I work my ass off almost every day, but the Market doesn’t reward this kind of work. I get an occasional speaking gig for money, a consulting gig here and there, and a couple of labor-intensive writing gigs that are on pretty shaky foundations. My book sales are very modest and provide me around $2,500 a year so far.

Rituals of sexual mutilation and rape – including the rape of enemy men – can be dated at least as far back as the Greeks, and almost always in the context of male groups, where competition to demonstrate sexual cruelty as the mark of manhood works as a kind of psychological accelerant. The introduction of social instability, and the destabilization of masculinities, brings this collective cruelty back with the special force of a reactionary backlash.