Capitalist
Information
Opinion
In the heyday of the New York Cosa Nostra (or “Mafia”), which began around 1931 and lasted for 30 years or so, a very odd situation sprang up. [What is known as] the Gambino crime family had as its head a man called Vincent Mangano. From what I have read of him he was rather congenial company, especially as a dinner companion, despite running a criminal empire which controlled the port of New York and extorted vast sums of money from ship owners and others. The movie On the Waterfront come to life, so to speak.
At the same time the most violent, psychotic man in the New York underworld was called Albert Anastasia; he founded ‘Murder Inc’, was suspected by law enforcement of personally killing around 500 people (albeit none of them a great loss to the world), and took great delight in doing so. Anastasia was vaguely the inspiration for the character of Luca Brasi in The Godfather.
The odd situation which sprang up in 1931 was that the other “Godfathers” and “families” in New York required Mangano and Anastasia to work together; Mangano as “Boss” and Anastasia “Underboss” of the Gambino family. Except they despised each other, never got on and couldn’t be in the same room for more than a minute or two without bickering and arguing.
It was a Machiavellian tactic on the part of the other bosses. One man controlled the New York docks, the other had a private army of killers. On their own, each man was incredibly dangerous and able to do whatever he wanted. By putting them together – constantly bickering and arguing with each other – they weren’t going to start plotting against anybody else!
The rather bizarre arrangement came to an abrupt end in 1951 when Anastasia simply murdered Mangano and took over; nobody demurred. This is what happens when you allow an uncontrollable psychopath to be your deputy (yes, dear reader, some people really ARE that stupid).
Fast forward a few years until, say, this week. Trevor Mallard issued a trespass notice to Winston Peters which banned him from Parliament’s grounds and buildings for a two year period. Winston’s reaction was one of apparent astonishment at the unfairness of the move, claiming that Mallard had “lost the plot”.
A madman with unlimited power running amok and using such power in any way he thinks fit knowing there is nobody to complain to? Who would have thought such a thing could ever occur?
As a simple country boy, there are many things which confuzzle me; there are, dear reader, it’s true.
For instance, let’s say you install a corpse into government thereby breathing life into it; install Mallard as Speaker and fully endorse an insane agenda which seeks to impoverish and destroy New Zealand. You do so with ‘malice aforethought’ and turn a collection of irrelevant, incompetent “historical footnotes” into senior politicians and enable them to acquire and extend their power and influence. What confuzzles me is how anybody could be so naive as to expect gratitude from these people.
Winston seems to think they would view him, personally, as a sort of special category worthy of indulgence but instead got the shock of his life. Anybody would think (ahem) these people truly believe they did it all on their own, due to their own brilliance and merits, rather than because of him.
Oh well, Winston can at least console himself with the knowledge he wasn’t at the mercy of a rabid dog such as Sir David Carter.
