Was talking to Olek about being a drug dealer (so many of my blog posts seem to start with me having a conversation with someone about something). I said that I wouldn't be able to handle all the killing and bashing people up, but how can you be a drug dealer without that? Again, all of my knowledge of drug dealing comes from The Wire, so this may or may not have any truth to it at all, but seeing as I have nothing else to go on, that is what I will use.
Control within the chain of command is done by fear. There's a great quote in the show where one of the kids is trying to work out a maths problem for school, and he can't seem to do it, but his brother frames it in terms of keeping track of a drug stash, and he has no problem solving it. His brother asks why he can solve the drug problem, but not the school problem, and the kid says it's because if you get the stash count wrong, you get beat up. Leaders can't be seen as being lenient because it's a sign of weakness (although it seems they are allowed to be lenient towards family members).
I think fear is a very important element in keeping people in line. If someone arrives late to work, and they don't get punished, then they will have no qualms about arriving late next time. One day, they might not even show up at all! I thought maybe if you were nice enough to someone, they might show up due to a sense of obligation, but that only goes so far.
We used to have this policy of writing up damaged goods at the supermarket, so that they could keep track of lost inventory due to damage. But the staff eventually realised that they could use that to their advantage, and there were some cases of people feeling like a chocolate bar, so they'd take one and write it up as "damaged" and eat it. I think management knew, but they didn't really care. Eventually, there was one staff member who was stealing trucks of stuff from the store that was "damaged" (she was caught, in the end), and after that happened, management toughened up on the whole "damaged goods" policy. I think it was a case of too little, too late. The damage had already been done. My friend told me that we had lost thousands of dollars worth of stock.
Is it possible to be a nice drug dealer? Whenever I think of criminal leaders, the first person I think of is always Vito Corleone. He is very much a family man, but he also isn't stupid. He does business by garnering favours rather than simply bashing people up when he wants something. People do things for him because he did something for them. To give an example that doesn't spoil too much of the story, he helps a baker's daughter keep her husband from being deported out of the USA, and in exchange, the baker makes Corleone's daughter's wedding cake for free.
But the Corleone system isn't entirely without violence - there's the famous horse head example. Still, he does say that when he can sort something out without having to resort to violence, he prefers to do it that way, whereas the characters in The Wire are so trigger-happy they just want to hurt people whenever they possibly can. Does this mean I'm better suited for gambling and racketeering?
I think the biggest problem of trying to be a nice leader is getting people to follow you. In order to be nice, you have to make people happy. You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. Eventually there will be dissent. Someone will stage a coup, and it'll all be over.
On the other hand, if you want to control people with fear, then you have to give them something important, because when someone has nothing to lose, then they're not afraid to go up against you. For instance, one of the characters loses someone he loves, and he's not afraid to go shooting people up and stealing drugs.
I can theorise all I want, but the sad truth is, there are people out there who are living this kind of life, and there are people whose families have to live in constant fear that their sons/daughters might get killed in a gang war. I don't like that thought at all, I guess that's why I've been thinking about volunteering for gambler's help. Just doing my bit to make the world a better place!
This entire exercise reminds me of something Julian said to me once - that quality of life is hugely dependant on spawning point. I guess if you spawn into the life of a drug dealer, it's really hard to get out, so why would anyone seriously consider going into that life?
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