Report from the Jungle
It was a war of each against all, and the devil take the hindmost. You did not give feasts to other people, you waited for them to give feasts to you. You went about with your soul full of suspicion and hatred; you understood that you were environed by hostile powers that were trying to get your money and who used all the virtues to bait their traps with. The storekeepers plastered their windows with all sorts of lies to entice you; the very fences by the wayside, the lamp-posts and telegraph poles, were pasted over with lies. The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country—from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie.
—Upton Sinclair (2003.122, p. 78)
