In The Western Lands, Burroughs continues his career-long castigation of those forces in contemporary society he holds responsible for the "true criminality of our times," the people he feels "through stupidity or design" are literally destroying the planet or "rendering it uninhabitable." From his earlier depiction of the enemy as masters of manipulation or controllers of desire and exploiters of essential need, Burroughs in The Western Lands identifies them as "Soul-Killers that don't quit" and locates them in the concentrations of power represented by organizations like "the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon," although his naming of American agencies has more to do with recognizable entities than any particular national villainy. The symptoms of destruction for Burroughs are common to all societies in states of advanced decay, so references to Nazi Germany, decadent regimes throughout history, and even small town corruption in America are offered...