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My reading of the comment you are replying to wasn’t comparing the mafia to democracy, but to government broadly. It’s a fair comparison. Specifically to dictat
by christophilus 4y ago
My reading of the comment you are replying to wasn’t comparing the mafia to democracy, but to government broadly. It’s a fair comparison. Specifically to dictatorships and various negative forms of government. The mafia looks much like a certain slice of government that we’ve seen throughout history many of which were rule by man, not by law.
- kbenson 4y agoYes, my comparison was to government as a concept, and the various forms of it we've seen, not specifically to our government or any modern one in existence in particular. And like most governments, whether those people it considers under it's authority agree with that assessment or not is largely irrelevant, as the "law" they rule under is determined by the ruling group alone.
- weard_beard 4y agoThe author makes this point explicitly: “The problem isn’t merely that Michael lacks his father’s warmth, though having it would have helped. It is that Michael wasn’t the founder. As Machiavelli explains, while principality is necessary to found states, republican institutions best preserve them. The perpetuation of states is the hardest challenge in politics—more difficult even than founding.” One main, if not THE main point of the article is that the film adaptation of The Godfather injected 70’s Watergate cynicism making just such a comparison to US corruption which would have ruined other films but the comparison is made in the guise of sleazy self deception.