Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty in The Majority Report Podcast Goodreads Group

Feb 10, 2022 Constantinos Kalogeropoulos rated it it was amazing

Wild read. This book about the Sackler family's oxycontin empire of death contains so many of the features of contemporary capitalism I couldn't possibly come close to listing them all. The deadly consequences of the profit motive, corporate malfeasance and criminality, regulatory capture, the moral and ethical bankruptcy of the 'marketing' and PR 'industries', victim blaming, offshore tax/legal evasion, and a seemingly never-ending parade of sycophantic and soulless politicians, lawyers, judges Wild read. This book about the Sackler family's oxycontin empire of death contains so many of the features of contemporary capitalism I couldn't possibly come close to listing them all. The deadly consequences of the profit motive, corporate malfeasance and criminality, regulatory capture, the moral and ethical bankruptcy of the 'marketing' and PR 'industries', victim blaming, offshore tax/legal evasion, and a seemingly never-ending parade of sycophantic and soulless politicians, lawyers, judges, and museum and university officials who either shielded the Sacker family from legal and financial justice, or who took their dirty blood money and helped them launder their reputation via 'donations' and 'philanthropy'.

While reading this book, a famous statement by Friedrich Engels kept popping up in my mind:

"When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains. I have now to prove that society in England daily and hourly commits what the working-men's organs, with perfect correctness, characterise as social murder, that it has placed the workers under conditions in which they can neither retain health nor live long; that it undermines the vital force of these workers gradually, little by little, and so hurries them to the grave before their time. I have further to prove that society knows how injurious such conditions are to the health and the life of the workers, and yet does nothing to improve these conditions. That it knows the consequences of its deeds; that its act is, therefore, not mere manslaughter, but murder..." ...more

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