Nation: THE CONGLOMERATE OF CRIME

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electorate allows it. Entrepreneurs who half-knowingly accept dirty money with the rationale that business is business are as corrupt as grafting politicians.

Tolerating the Mob

In large measure, the modern Mob lacks the traditional justification for crime—the bitter spur of poverty. It also lacks the occasional, near-heroic dimension of defying law and the established order for the sake of rebellion. It is by and large a middle-class sort of Mob, more or less tolerated by the affluent. Among the public there is often a certain psychological hypocrisy. Rage is great over conspicuous criminal acts, but there is less anger over the far more harmful depredations that are the specialty of organized crime. Until there is a popular revolt, La Cosa Nostra will probably endure.