Boiled Vulteres and God's Middle Finger - Essay Example

Sierra Madre is a drug-driven location where security forces have little or no say. On the other hand, Fox’s reading is based in Christiania, a locale in Denmark. The events in Christiania are characterized by internal social conflicts within Christiania and stiff relations between the people of this Free Town and the Danish government. The two social settings presented in the two readings are far apart, but the unfolding events and the way of life in Sierra Madre and Christiania Free Town are relatively convergent.

The two readings depict critical similarities amid their diversity and differences. Drug production, use and trafficking is a dominant undertaking presented by the two readings. Production of drugs that outside societies regard as illegal is rampant in both societies accounted for by Grant and Fox in their relative texts. In Sierra Madre, drugs constitute the primary source of income (Grant 9). Drug lords have dominated this practice, gaining the full support of the society due to the economic benefits and social impacts that drugs have brought about in this region.

Regulation of this practice is a difficult task due to the complexities of governance and law setting in Sierra Madre. In Christiania Free Town, drug production, sale and use are a social norm. This locale enjoys social autonomy, a scenario that is evidenced by Fox by quoting, “They called the eighty-five-acre district Christiania Free Town, drew up a constitution, printed their own currency, banished property ownership, legalized marijuana, and essentially seceded from Denmark” (Best American Series 233).

The Christiania micro-nation’s practice of self-rule promotes the use and sale of drugs. As it appears, the social and economic pillar of this Free Town is based on drug production. The engagement of legal aspects in drug production provides a critical backup to a practice that highly exacerbates crime and related practices. Personally, the Christiania drug undertakings are preferred. Although both Sierra Madre and Christiania Free Town are deeply rooted in drugs and related practices, the Christiania aspect is relatively organized in comparison to Christiania.

The legal aspect of marijuana in Christiania captures personal interest because it is least expected that drug production could be legal in any given social setting. However, as Fox’s text points out, the autonomy enjoyed by Christiania people has integrated a legal drug (marijuana) into the society’s normal system. The social setup in both Sierra Madre and Christiania is characterized by similar aspects in relation to the way things are run in these two different societies. Sierra Madre is characterized by lawlessness, and antisocial behaviors are highly evident.

Grant (43) says, “The rules of law and society have never taken hold in the Sierra Madre, which is home to bandits, drug smugglers, Mormons, cave-dwelling Tarahumara Indians, opium farmers, cowboys, and other assorted outcasts”. This locale lacks a straight form of governance, meaning that the society is self-ruled, based on aspects that can hardly constitute social behaviors, practices, morals or norms. Anarchism is evident due to the fact that any organized authority is highly opposed. The people seem to enjoy their own autonomy, with hardly any organized making efforts to reverse