When the world is seen as an arena for perpetual war, the crucial distinction is not between right and wrong but between friend and enemy.
So while President Bush’s memorable declaration that “either you are for us or you’re against us” distorted the geopolitical realities of the “war on terror,” it did show us the nature of the world he inhabits. It’s a world where what counts about someone is that he is “for us” and “against them.”
The Ethic of Gangsterism
Like feudal lords, the gangster also dwells in a system in which fragmentation dictates that war is a chronic condition. And thus for the gangster, too, being able to trust the fealty of those within the fortified walls is a matter of life-and-death importance.
The issue of trust is woven throughout The Godfather Saga – whether it is the fatal indiscretion of the hot-headed brother in the first film, or the fatal betrayal by the weak brother in the second.
“Never tell anyone outside the family what you really think,” Don Corleone tells his hot-headed son. (And similarly, this White House has never told us what it really thinks about much of anything.) “Fredo, you broke my heart,” says the new Godfather because his brother has allowed enemies to breach the family’s protective walls.
It is in the light of the spirit of gangsterism that we can make sense of Bush’s record of dealing with his minions and critics.
Symptom of an Amoral World
A world in which loyalty is so profound a value that it displaces all the others, then, is part of an amoral framework that is all about service to the aggrandizing self. This is a self that never feels it has enough security and thus seeks all the power and wealth it can get. It is a self that knows no larger or greater good for which it might sacrifice some part of its personal empire.
And so America, having handed power to such a self, now watches as that “greater good” is being dismantled.
So while President Bush’s memorable declaration that “either you are for us or you’re against us” distorted the geopolitical realities of the “war on terror,” it did show us the nature of the world he inhabits. It’s a world where what counts about someone is that he is “for us” and “against them.”
The Ethic of Gangsterism
Like feudal lords, the gangster also dwells in a system in which fragmentation dictates that war is a chronic condition. And thus for the gangster, too, being able to trust the fealty of those within the fortified walls is a matter of life-and-death importance.
The issue of trust is woven throughout The Godfather Saga – whether it is the fatal indiscretion of the hot-headed brother in the first film, or the fatal betrayal by the weak brother in the second.
It is in the light of the spirit of gangsterism that we can make sense of Bush’s record of dealing with his minions and critics.
Symptom of an Amoral World
A world in which loyalty is so profound a value that it displaces all the others, then, is part of an amoral framework that is all about service to the aggrandizing self. This is a self that never feels it has enough security and thus seeks all the power and wealth it can get. It is a self that knows no larger or greater good for which it might sacrifice some part of its personal empire.
And so America, having handed power to such a self, now watches as that “greater good” is being dismantled.
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