Sicario, Gay Comedy, Aliens, & Story Telling
REFLECTION OF SELF:
The Fallacy of ‘Right & Wrong’
Yesterday, I was rewatching one of my favorite films I’ve seen in the past 5 years, Sicario. It follows the story of a crew that tries to take down the head boss of the Mexican Cartel on their own turf. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the film shines with the all-star cast of Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, and Emily Blunt.
Warning, there will be spoilers, so if you’d like to watch the movie without any information on what happens please continue to the next section of the newsletter.
Alejandro, in my opinion, the most interesting character of the film, is a hired hitman of the Medellín Cartel based in Colombia. His job is simple: put a bullet through the head and heart of El Jefe, the boss of the Mexican Cartel.
Throughout the course of the film, Alejandro’s backstory unfolds and it becomes clear that this is not just a job, it’s a personal vendetta. I’ll leave it to the film to reveal Alejandro’s bloody past.
Though, I will tell you this. Alejandro doesn’t work alone. Along with being hired by the Medellín Cartel, he also is working with the US Government.
You see, the boys up top in Washington know that they will never completely eradicate drugs like cocaine. The best that the government can hope for is having things under control. And having two cartels trafficking drugs over the US-Mexico Border (Medellín & Mexican), is making things difficult to control from the US side.
So, Alejandro and the US forces work together with the same objective: take out the head boss of the Mexican Cartel to preserve control.
One cartel, the US can deal with. Two having absolute power creates absolute chaos.
So, that leaves us with “right” & “wrong.”
Is it right for the US government to work with another cartel with a common objective?
Keep in mind, the Columbian Cartels aren’t much better than the Mexicans. They murder, corrupt, and destroy communities in a similar fashion. But the US decides that they’d rather deal with the Colombians who retain a spec of integrity in their operations, whereas the Mexicans have gone completely scorched Earth.
I definitely couldn’t call that right.
But I also couldn’t call it wrong.
By taking out the Mexican Cartel Boss and working with Alejandro, the US government is chopping the head off of an organization that orders the murders of hundreds of people per day, corrupts thousands of cops, and destroys the lives of millions. The cartel and Mexican life are like waves and water, impossible to separate when organized. When you take out the boss, you create disorganization, fear, and an opportunity to strike when the opponent is weak.
If working with the Medellin Cartel can improve the lives of millions of Mexicans, Americans, and others around the world, so be it. We’ll work with the Colombians now and worry about them later.
What would you do if you could vastly improve the lives of millions of people but you had to work with a corrupt person or organization to do it?
I don’t know what I would do.
The first thought that would cross my mind would be, “I’m not the type of person who works with people like this! That’s just wrong, I can’t cross that line. How could my family and friends ever look at me again?”
Then, perhaps my next thought would be, “Who gives a shit which ‘type of person’ other people perceive me as? I have an opportunity to help millions, and that has shit I do is a burden I’ll have to bear.”
The world needs people who are willing to sacrifice their own morality and sense of cleanliness for the greater good. And I’m not saying that’s me.
I’m far from it. I record podcasts from the safety of my own studio sipping on whiskey chilled by fake bullets.
There are people out there who fire real bullets to kill cartel members, sex traffickers, terrorists, and arms dealers to make the world a better place to sleep at night.
And I’m sure as shit grateful that those people exist. And if I’m ever lucky enough to meet someone like that one day, I won’t judge them for blurring the lines between right and wrong.
That line doesn’t always exist clearly in real life.
It’s an ideal.
And when the situation turns extreme, the best you can hope for is better.
Not perfect, not great, not kumbaya, but better.
Something I’ll definitely be asking myself more is:
“Am I rejecting this opportunity to preserve my own sense of morality? Or am I rejecting it because it won’t make things better?”
In an ideal world, the right thing to do and the way to make things better always overlap.
But, in the real world, it’s rarely a perfect fit.
Clean hands don’t mean a clean soul.
It’s impossible to make life-changing differences to vast groups of people without getting your hands a little dirty.
LATEST AUXORO PODCAST:
Avi Loeb: Oumuamua, Aliens First Contact, Black Holes, Arrival (film), & Are We Alone?
Edited by Manoa Raine (LA Producer & Creator)
Avi Loeb is an astrophysicist at Harvard and an author. Episode links below:
The Story Behind Oumuamua & Is It Alien Tech? (YouTube Clip)
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EXCITING WORK FROM SOMEONE ELSE:
Comedian Matteo Lane Hops On The Flagrant 2 Podcast with Andrew Schulz & Akaash Singh
This was hilarious, and gay!!
QUOTE TO LEAVE YOU INSPIRED
“According to Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal, functional MRI (fMRI) studies reveal that when we’re reading a story, our brain activity isn’t that of an observer, but of a participant.” - Lisa Cron
Source: Story Genius