Monday, May 9, 2016

CMT - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance



Power is like money; people don't care how you get it. What matters is the status they grant you and not how that status was attained. At the end of the day, two rich and powerful men, are equal regardless of their history. You can build a business with hours of hard work, or you can finance it with grand larceny.

Minecraft “Notch” and rapper Jay-Z, could sit and break bread at the same table. They both acquired an enormous fortune, and it's safe to say they earned it. The only big difference between the artists, is that one of them started outside the law. It's hard to tell when they're in a hotel, and club owners offer them the same luxuries. So the ends always justify the means, but sometimes death is justified too.


Classic Movie Trailers – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)


Have you ever had a boss that didn't follow his own rules? Have you ever seen one disregarding restrictions? You can ask workers to shut off their phones, but there's always an excuse, so the manager doesn't have to. Sometimes, there are valid reasons for exemptions, but most of the time it's “do as I say and not as I do”.

The manager I'm talking about is a bully in disguise. Their power places them above others. If you look closely you can find a lot of bullies; some are in jail and some are in public office. If you want an extreme case of the subject, take a look at any dictator.

A ruler doesn't kill subjects to do them good. A ruler kills to crush dissent. If the dictator was acting in the interests of everyone, there wouldn't have been dissent in the first place. Yet no one can deny the situation; heads of state have no pretenders to the throne. If they attained office without the majority vote, it doesn't matter at the end of the day.

What does matter, is the power to get away with murder. They can disregard the rules and nothing happens to them. In the old west, these men were thieves and bandits, but some of them were sheriffs, mayors or senators. They can threaten your lifestyle or threaten your life, but all of them are bullies, regardless of how they do it.

The hold on the situation is always tenuous. Fear is never the greatest motivator. It does work for a while, but if it did so indefinitely, there wouldn't be such a thing as revolution. If you go and check history, you'll find that those are common enough.

You can't threaten to shoot people, or throw your weight around, and expect that it'll stay that way forever. A lot of people will steer clear of you, but others will eventually stand in your way. It could end in a shoot out by the saloon, or it could turn into a civil war. One thing you can definitely be sure of, is that nothing is stable forever.

War crimes are punished, in court or otherwise. Liars dodge the consequences, but it's only a temporary stay. So there is a difference between the rich and powerful, but for a time it's hard to notice it. If you do wonder about someone, consider how they died and the number of people mourning them.




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See “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” on Netflix!


Next Week “The Warriors” (1979)

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