A Mobster from the 30's States a Claim Worth Mentioning
I forget his exact wording but I remember the general thesis.
It was something dealing with money
And respectability.
He tied those two entities like ribbons around a package
And I even remember having a metaphor for the package.
Was it his life? No, it couldn't be. I think it might have been tradition.
That would be rather well stated, given the fact that, typically, tradition
Evokes feelings of nostalgia--lemonade and summer swing-sets type stuff--but
the reality of tradition, of history, is that someone wrings his callous
hands around an idea
And proclaims it his own,
And he doesn't care what he breaks, what he erodes in order to continue
holding
Even as the skin of his hands turns white, then red, then
purple.
Same Mobster, Years Later
He's not without his reservations
His insecurities, his conscience.
In fact, one could make a case for these things determining his
circumstances entirely
But a good sociologist--
And probably a few bad ones--
Would steer me away from mistaking a correlation with causality.
It sounds so highfalutin, but it isn't, even to me.
It's just my way of not being able to tell which way an arrow points.
I meant to mention that he had killed a few of his old best friends
But I guess I had more important matters to discuss
And, in any case, I'm sure he feels awful about the whole ordeal.
So Much Time Has Passed That I Hesitate to Call Him the Same Mobster
He has dispensed of tradition altogether.
A dangerous move, claim some of the nosier, braver, more vocal townfolk.
Like a politician alienating his base.
Mobsters--hell, most people--don't have campaign managers.
They are children of peanut farmers and factory workers
Oil tycoons and newspapermen
The types who history books claim built this country on their backs
Or built this country with their own bare hands
Or built this country using their blood, sweat, and tears as a sort of
lubricant to help reduce this country's viscosity.
And in a roundabout way, that's how this mobster views himself.
A business man, dealing in a sort of meta-business
Of giving people not what they want but what they must live with
Dangling by the edge of their own morality
Their own--what was it?
Respectability.