The Social Contract As Gangster

"Don't chu get it, you prick? You got a home, car, businesses, family, n' I own

the paper on your whole fuckin' life."  From the film Thief - Leo speaking to Frank

            In Michael Mann’s film Thief there is a scene where James Caan’s character Frank, a career thief of high end merchandise (diamonds, jewelry etc…) has been working for Leo played with percolating menace by the late Robert Prosky. Frank is meeting with Leo to get what he thinks is the 900K cut he is due for a job he has just successfully pulled off. Leo hands him a paper bag, but upon a cursory glance knows there’s far less than the agreed upon amount inside:

Frank: Where's the rest?

Leo: Don't worry about it.

Frank: What is this?

Leo: This is the cash part.

Frank: Well, you're light. 's supposed be here, and l count, what…         .

Leo: Cos l put you into the Jacksonville, Fort Worth and Davenport shopping centers. I

take care of my people. You can ask these guys. Papers are at your house. It's a

limited partnership with a subchapter S corporation. You've got equity with me in

that.

Frank: Well, count me out.

Leo: I thought we had this good thing. Plus we got a  major score in Palm Beach for

you in six weeks.

Frank: You talkin' to me, or somebody else walk in this room?

Leo: What's that supposed to mean?

Frank: It means you are dreaming. This is payday. It is over.

Leo: You know, when you have trouble with the cops, you pay 'em off like everybody

else because that's the way things are done. But not you, huh?

Frank: No. They don't run me and you don't run me.

Leo: I give you houses. I give you a car. You're family. I thought you'd come around.

What the hell is this? Where is gratitude?

Frank: Where is my end?

Leo: You can't see day for night.

Frank: I can see my money is still in your pocket, which is from the yield of my labor.

What gratitude?  You're making big profits from my work, my risk, my sweat.

But that is OK, because l elected it to make that deal. But now the deal is over.

I want my end, and l am out.

Leo: Why don't you join a labor union?

Frank: I am wearing it.

            Even the gangster world is not immune to the social contract. Leo, despite his

Ill-gotten gains, still believes in the eminently American traditions of dedication to family, real estate investment and consumerism. He can’t fathom why Frank has no interest in signing the same contract and instead wants to remain independent. Granted Frank was a thief and that the gangster life is fraught with perils of a different order, but think about how that same concept, accepting the social contract plays into our own lives everyday.

            The social contract we sign in many ways could easily have been written up and executed down at the crossroads with the devil as notary. True from an evolutionary/business standpoint it makes better sense to behave and conform to a set of standards. Things run smoother. Chaos doesn’t reign. Agreements on how to behave in a society are the centripetal and centrifugal forces that keeps the culture from jumping the rail.

But at what cost to humanity?

            Think how it would it be to spend a lifetime toeing the line. You cross every T, you dot every I and never, ever question the status quo. Well, most of us do not have to think very hard about it as we are already many years into this scenario. Worshipping, belonging to clubs, attending funerals, celebrating holidays, rooting for sports teams, each act is prescribed by the culture as a rewarded behavior, the reward receiving designation as a card carrying person in good stead, accepted and validated by all of the other actors in the play.

            Well, I surely don’t feel this way. I never have. I will admit that I’m in the show, but still have no interest in its outcome.

            If you spend anytime contemplating the environment in which you live, it is safe to say that in many ways we are trapped like rats. Automobile traffic is worse by the day. Retail expansion chokes out nature. Technology divides instead of uniting. All of this devolution is in plain view, yet we accept it as if it is in our best interests because we haven’t a clue what our best interests are.

            According to Michel Foucault mental illness really exploded after the start of the Industrial Revolution as humans were reduced to widgets in a machine that produced widgets, willingly renouncing their own humanity in exchange for the comfort of a weekly paycheck.

            For capital, a human 3^rd dimension was no longer desirable or needed. Unbridled creativity became anathema to the growth of the machine and was soon replaced by automatons prized for their rote thinking and obeisance.

            In the end all Frank wanted was the money that was the yield from his labor. Leo as capital wasn’t interested in paying an independent contractor. Capital needs to control the vertical and horizontal at all costs even if that means excising any and all that will not sign the contract.

            What’s the problem? It’s a simple matter really. Sign the contract! Join the party! Forget about your dreams! Watch the game! Eat some nachos! Sign the contract! Forget about your dreams! Watch the game! Eat some nachos! Rinse and repeat…