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| The Four Pillars. | Started by: Sprozza on Oct 18, '07 15:19 |
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Looks around Well there we have it folks, turns out I'm turning insane. I musta said all that stuff in my head just now. Now then, I would imagine most of you are familiar with the Four Pillars concept but for those of you who aren't; I, being a kindred soul, will fill you in. Omerta, Onore, Famiglia, Sangue. In no particular order, these are the Four Pillars. Some believe, me included, that any mobster worth his weight will live his life by the Four Pillars teaching, even if unknowingly. Some believe that although all Four Pillars are equal, and whilst none take precedence over another, the fall of a single pillar will result in a collapse of La Cosa Nostra. Do you believe this has happened in recent memory? I do, and sadly, I believe hardly anyone has even noticed. Like most here, I lurk in the coffee shops and I roam the streets in search of an interesting debate. I hear rumours and whispers, and it is a sad conclusion I make, recently, we have seen a decline. You preach Omerta, yet I have seen you talk about killing in the middle of a coheirship. You preach Famiglia, yet I have seen "underground" movements quashed with alarmingly regularity. You preach Onore, oh how you preach Onore. Well take a stroll down to the graveyard then tell me about your precious Onore, my friends. You preach Sangue, and credit where credit is due, you deliver. Recently, I have seen scores of Mobsters die, and be willing to die for their families. This, for me, is the glimmering light at the end of a dark, dark tunnel. What's changed? Are the leaders to blame? Currently, I think not, we have a strong bunch who at least seem to be leading by example, allowing us the pride and integrity we take for granted. Perhaps the death of DiscoDuck, God rest his soul, has burst the boil so to speak, but that's irrelevant, the leaders can only be blamed so much. It is you, the everyday mobsters, who make things as they are. It is you who have let the standards slip. It is you who have forgotten what we are all about. My question to you is "Why?" What marks this situation as so different from the past? Why does the here and now mean we can forfeit our standards for seemingly no reason? Only today I was told that "Omerta doesn't matter anymore." That disgusts me, I'll be honest. Granted, I may speaking prematurely here, there could be a revival of principles in effect and thank God, it is beginning to look that way. Really though, pull yourself together people, stand up and show what you're made of. |
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| I smell a push for auth coming up. Watch this space. | |
| Reply by: Ryan_McTavish at Oct 18, '07 15:56 | |
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If it isn't considered too intrusive, I would like to add a few additions to a wonderful post. Please consider these shims that go alongside the pillars. Personal Responsibility Too often I find people tossing around excuses for every action that happens to them. Randomly wacked, scammed, HQ'd, mugged, demoted; none of it could possibly be your fault. Most actions are simply reactions caused by something prior. Maybe you were "random wacked" because you were annoying in a past life. Maybe you got killed because you were a bastard to someone who had friends in high places. Maybe you got demoted because you are more hassle than you are worth to your crew leader. In the end you need to consider what actions you have done to cause what happened. More often than not, you will see that it's your own karma coming back to get you. Take some personal responsibility for your actions and accept the consequences. Pride Have some pride in how you communicate. Too often I see quotes that appear to be written by 9 year olds. Have pride in how you carry yourself. Temper tantrums are tolerated from 6 year olds, but we can only shake our heads in disbelieve when it comes from an adult. Greater Good Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and make some sacrifices for things that will not immediately and directly benefit yourself. Donate a little extra to the crew leader. Send a few dollars to the new thug in your crew so he can carry a full load of drugs. Defend someone in a thread who is being unfairly ripped apart. |
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| Reply by: Depress at Oct 18, '07 15:59 | |
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| I said it before we went back in time and I 'll say it again: these are my rules to live by. Nothing is more important than the four pillars of our society. I see too many people these days slipping away from it, and quite frankly it makes me sad. It almost seems like the great organizations that our fore fathers created are slipping apart from what made them great in the first place. I uphold these virtues and I think we should all do our best to do so as well. | |
| Reply by: ProphetOfDoom at Oct 18, '07 16:10 | |
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Congratulations on your intuitive comment Ryan. I couldn't agree more Depress, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find someone who's willing to stand up for their actions. "My promo isn't up? Man, CL is holding me back" is a common one these days, is it a wonder these people aren't promoted? Pride? Ties in very strongly with what I've said. I like to think of pride as mortar to bricks. Without pride, none of this is possible. It is inexplicably linekd to every action we take and every word we utter. Greater good. Sometimes it's necessary to sacrfice sangue for famiglia, no? That being said, would you, or even should you, make a sacrifice that is unlikely to bring any privileges to your offspring or yourself. Is it wrong that we, as a community, expect such sacrifices to be made? |
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| Reply by: Sprozza at Oct 18, '07 16:10 | |
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Seven pillars? What kind of overachieving architects are you all, anyway? Sprozza, I find it a bit charming that you clutch so diligently to long outdated codes and principles that never really fit into the lifestyle in the first place. Our own version of fairy tales and bedtime stories. Fanciful lies, nothing more. Step out of the past, man. It's the 30's. |
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| Reply by: RonMexico at Oct 18, '07 16:36 | |
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| Please elaborate RonMexico. These "outdated" principles of mine are no longer viable? Why? | |
| Reply by: Sprozza at Oct 18, '07 16:39 | |
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| I am a pillar of perception and I am glad you have noticed that. I look forward to hearing more contrived speeches during the course of your campaign. | |
| Reply by: Ryan_McTavish at Oct 18, '07 16:53 | |
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First off, Omerta is completely inapplicable around here, as we're very careful not to let anyone who isn't connect come anywhere near the conversations we have. We run absolutely no risk of violating the code of Omerta. It has nothing to do with relations between families. That, as a very wise man once said, is simply a case of someone's mouth being bigger than their brain. Onore? Yes, I think I saw this movie once. It's very sexy, isn't it? The gentleman thieves. Merely an invention of the mind, I'm afraid. Onore is what old men, on the brink of senility(not pointing any fingers, of course) talk about when they get up to ramble on about "In my day..." Unfortunately there have never been any "golden days", there have always just been days. Famiglia... I don't think I need to point out, to someone with such a knowledge of our heritage, the numbers of Bosses who found themselves gasping for their final breath at the feet of their RH, number two man, or closest confidant. It's not an uncommon occurrence in our business. When insurance salesmen retire, they get a cheap gold watch (And boy, are they cheap. Took 'em off a truck for nothin', sold 'em for half price. 100% profit.), we get capped. Possibly by someone we love. An unsettling concept, sure, but one that we live with everyday. Welcome to the Mafia. Never mind the debris, we're remodeling. |
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| Reply by: RonMexico at Oct 18, '07 16:58 | |
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| Definitely an i deserve auth speech. | |
| Reply by: USA-Rules-UK-Drools` at Oct 18, '07 17:11 | |
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Nevermind auth, I'm actually gunning for a Nobel Prize, I'm not bothered what category. Peace will do I suppose, and well done on providing somethin unoriginal and uninspiring USA-rules, that's very...Unamerican of you. Ron, your points on Omerta I have to disagree with, so many tims since my return have I seen people yelling about how they just killed such and such, or how they saw such and such being killed by so and so, or how so and so and such and such....nevermind. Anyway, this isn't my rose tinted vision of the glory days, if only this. I distinctly remember a time when people had a modicum of sense and subtlety. Onore? If no one else, me and my bloodline have had it at least some of the time. Does that not count for something? Either way, Onore is also a thing which I seem to remember being commonplace "back in the day" Famiglia, well, you have a point here, our demise inevitable, we are like lemmings toward a cliff, and sadly you are right, it often comes at the hand of those who are trusted. But surely we can have some fun in the meantime? |
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| Reply by: Sprozza at Oct 18, '07 17:28 | |
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It does not matter what kind of speech it is. At least the effort is there to teach the young ones something about the way Mafia works and to stir up debate as to whether it is the right way. I'd rather see someone posting in the streets with a motive than with snidey bullshit comments like yours. |
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| Reply by: Scandia at Oct 18, '07 17:29 | |
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Again, there's a difference between breaking the code of Omerta, and just generally not knowing when to shut up. Omerta was first put into practice long ago in Sicily. It was a self-imposed regulation for the everyday townsfolk. Basically, they didn't go to the authorities about the local Families, because they believed that the government would ultimately do more harm. Here in America, we picked it up as a code for Mafiosi, yes. But, in this case, it's meant to keep us from discussing business issues with people who aren't mobbed up. Look around you. We've taken firm control of these streets. Omerta is safe, I'd say. |
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| Reply by: RonMexico at Oct 18, '07 17:49 | |
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Sprozza you speak on many things here, things that are lost on some and looked over by others. While I agree with you to an extent our world and that world that these pillars were brought about in are two very different places. We don't have to worry about authorities gaining vital information for there are no authorities. What we need to worry about is other families finding out vital information about our chosen family. It's known widely that informing the community of acts of killing is not good practice. This is information that should be brought to the attention of our superiors in our own family and I'm pretty sure that is a stipulation in all families rules. The thought of the good old days, that all depends on what time you personally thought of the good old days. Some think of it as peaceful times others think of it as murderous times. Honour is still withheld throughout families, there aren't people screaming in our streets and it's not all that often we see blatent disrespect. Family, well look around you. How many work closely within the families. Regularly donate more money than they are taxed to help the families grow. Hell if there wasn't a sense of families noone would be allowed to rank above earner as there would be no trust from the bosses. In short what I'm saying is you aren't wrong and you aren't right. It all depends on how you look at things in context to what your talking about. It's all here, it might not be completely obvious but it is here. |
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| Reply by: Spanky_McSpangle at Oct 19, '07 11:11 | |
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As someone who is descended from what one might call 'Old Blood", I am moved by this post. Over the years, I have become a bitter and jaded old man, as I have seen our young men and woman degenerate in to thugs and killers without any sense of honor or respect towards our famigias and our traditions. I've gone from admonishing them and trying to revive the traditions, to someone who has little desire to comment on the streets aside for an old mans ramblings and sarcastic remarks. Even if our situation has changed, we can still use and modify the four pillars of our traditional famiglias to adopt to the new and changed society that we live in. It is my hope that Sprozza and others like like, such as the young man from the Striphe famiglia, as well as some of our new heads of familgia, can center our lives and our action using our Four Pillars as a guideline and a beacon. Salut --Mars |
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| Reply by: Mars at Oct 19, '07 13:27 | |
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It's a business, not a religion. I'd go on, but I don't think that needs to be expanded upon at this time. I'd much rather just let that sink in for a bit. |
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| Reply by: RonMexico at Oct 19, '07 14:54 | |
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| It is not a religion. It includes business, but I think the way of the Mafioso, is neither business nor religion but a way of life. Not unlike the way of the warrior. We are the new world order of organized crime. Not just some lowly theives guild or gang. We must present our ways as more than just a way to do business, but as the way to live. | |
| Reply by: ProphetOfDoom at Oct 19, '07 14:57 | |
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Well said ProphetOfDoom, If we abandon our ways, we will loose our way. Perhaps for Mr Mexico this is nothing but a line of work, but then nothing separates him from any other thug on the streets. No honor there. |
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| Reply by: Mars at Oct 19, '07 15:01 | |
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The moment we center our business and/or lifestyle around cultist commandments, we take on a facet of religion. As a logical person, I believe that businesses, and lifestyles alike, but be flexible and readily changeable. Changes in religion are equated with heresy. I don't need rules of stone, literal or symbolic, to tell me what's best for myself. I make no false claims to honor. What separates me from a thug on the streets? Experience. Not long ago I was a mere thug on the street. As were you. As were we all. |
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| Reply by: RonMexico at Oct 19, '07 15:07 | |
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This life is not about what we once were, but what we are striving to evolve into. I am not saying you are wrong Ron, I'm just saying that if we don't lay down some sort of rules we wouldn't really be "organized". The four pillars are just a guide to success. The ones who do great in this business follow them, once you stop following the pillars you take a step back in the other direction. It is up to the individual to follow what they believe they should. |
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| Reply by: ProphetOfDoom at Oct 19, '07 15:13 | |
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