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| Value of life? | Started by: Deano on Mar 25, '09 23:02 |
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Deano hobbles out of the HQ and takes a long look at the "soapbox" and thinks better of it. Crutches and wooden crates were never mean't to be friends. He heads for the street corner and adresses the passing people. I come before you today to ask a question,or in any case I am taking opinions on my thoughts. Over the past while, we have seen many Godfathers and Godmothers come and go. We have an era where you cannot walk 2 city blocks without running into a Don. These ranks are everywhere,and bosses and consigs are seeming to be more frequent than earners and wiseguys. The thing that has me concerned is this: Has the value of life diminished in our society due to the fact that we have so many high ranked players? Just yesterday I seen 5 mademen(yes one was a rogue) die in a span of 6 hours. The day before that 2 Bosses and 2 Capos take a swim. My father told stories of seeing days of as many as 4 consigs and 2 Dons dying in a day. And was anything really said about it? Not really, you can go check the funerals and see a handful of people show up. Normally just drinking buddies and secret loves.The odd crewleader shows up and gives the "RIP, I am gutted to see you here" yadda yadda yadda schtick. But unless the deceased was a bigtime hitter or RHM , nothing extravagant is said or done. Now back in the old days of my great grandpappy, if a mademan fell in the line of duty, there was some serious attention paid to it. And if by chance a frigging Consig or Don bit it? Sweet Zombie Jesus! The frigging world stopped until everything was settled and respects were paid. Now I ain't saying that it is a fact that people today don't give a fuck about others and rank means nothing. I am just saying it sure fucking looks that way! Your thoughts? |
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There's an old saying..."Never look a gift horse in the mouth". In other words, why question it? Let's just be glad that they are dying. |
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| Reply by: Butt_Ox at Mar 25, '09 23:07 | |
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| Yeah but whats the point of making it to the higher ranks if people still give no pause before killing you. I'd rather wait and for it to be worth the wait. | |
| Reply by: BestFriend at Mar 25, '09 23:10 | |
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do not get me wrong here, I am as much for fulfilling bloodlust as anyone. I was told once that blood makes the flowers grow. But to see these ESTABLISHED ranks falling without so much as a family funeral. Hell I guess if many of them never seen a mademan ceremony let alone a consig ceremony,a funeral of any status would be confusing as fuck to them |
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| Reply by: Deano at Mar 25, '09 23:16 | |
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| I feel a lot of the respects paid or not paid has to do with the respect a Bold gets during his/her time in the game. I have read some heartful comments in Obits, and some not to nice, but I do agree people are not as surprised these days to see Bolds dying, it is a common thing. | |
| Reply by: Dead2X at Mar 25, '09 23:33 | |
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| you have a very valid point Deano, i agree with you in that there are to many higher ranked players diminishing the value of the lower ranks and the balance is all wrong, even the rank of boss is now just a throw away rank, it seems the only time you are truly held in awe or deserved respect is when you are at the rank of don or godfather/godmother. i think this is mainly the responsibility of the higher ranks (crew leaders) instead of just promoting people at the first opportunity, mobsters should earn their ranks and the respect of other members of our world. a more hierarchical structure needs to be adopted | |
| Reply by: Vincent_Zambone at Mar 26, '09 00:07 | |
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I'll give a more serious answer. What really surprises me isn't the indifference to the deaths of high ranked mobsters. What I think has really taken a dramatic turn is the ease with which a crewleader will snuff out a member of his (yes, I say "his", because it is almost always the male CLs) family who has received their button. This is disgraceful, to me. There has been a lot of talk about the cheapening of the ranks...well this also cheapens the prestige of being Made. Being Made is supposed to afford you a higher level of protection. It means that nobody can mess with you without the blessing of the family Boss. I have seen Consiglieres killed for taking a seven day vacation, as if they were nothing more than cannon fodder. I cannot see how this is even remotely justifiable. Mademen, Capos, taken from the HQ in a casket....and you will sometimes see their Boss show up at the funeral expressing how they were left with little choice. Funny thing, that is, since the HQs are never full. Two years ago there was an unsponsored Boss in Los Angeles who sat untouched for at least a month, if memory serves me right. His name may have been Barney Rubble. There was respect for the rank and respect for life, when a man, through no fault of his own and from the family of a deceased leader who died by the hands of a rogue, was left alone until he could wake from his slumber. Now, heh, someone who is supposedly under the "protection" of a family is not even afforded eight days, regardless of their rank. If it's a gangster or a goomba, they are lucky to get a five day grace period. Crewleaders used to be killed for using their family as cannon fodder to such extremes. Now it is business as usual, and I have not heard anyone complain about it once. Death has become mundane. |
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| Reply by: Butt_Ox at Mar 26, '09 00:10 | |
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A man, or woman, is often defined my his actions and speech. Perhaps there is less attention payed to high ranked people who pass away because they didn't make themselves known. They come and work hard, they fly to fine cities and do business with many people but they sleep in taxies and phone booths and eat peanuts they steal from the drink cart on the plane they took into town. Perhaps if more of the high ranked citizens in this thing of ours came back into the bars and restaurants and gambling dens and whore houses, there would be a sense of shock and loss to see their name in the paper, rather then a feeling of "eh, I didn't know them so no big loss." Working hard and honoring your family is important, but getting out into the world and making a name for yourself is just as important and may be the difference between a long happy life and a death people mourn or an existence no one thinks about whether you're alive or dead. |
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| Reply by: KittieCapone at Mar 26, '09 02:51 | |
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Using their families as a cannon fodder as you say Butt_Ox, is still unaccpetable, well in my eyes. I look down upon those crewleaders who demolish their own crew members, one by one. As for Consigliere's being killed after 7 days of vacation, well, I do not like this either. However, the argument could be that, if he/she holds a prestigious rank as Consigliere, then they should have the common decency to tell their leader that they will be away for a while. Consigliere isn't as hard as it used to be to get to, maybe this is why the ranks have lessened in prestige. |
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| Reply by: Paradox at Mar 26, '09 08:37 | |
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Well, in many ways, today we have a different situation than two years ago. A large majority of our world is more concerned with their gun strength than family. This leads to crew-killing, limited "pro time" for family members that lose their sponsor. If we could shift the focus off of guns, you wouldn't have most of the OBITs that we do. As for the topic at hand, "Value of Life". As far as I'm concerned, the Mafia is about money. We all got into the Mafia for the money. It's the motivation for everything we do- or it's supposed to be. As I said earlier, some people are concerned with their gun, more than their family. Well, most people would take a good gun over cash, ditching their investment for a kill. If we could could return to "businessmen", this world would prosper. |
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| Reply by: Ares at Mar 26, '09 08:58 | |
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I myself have hear of a Made Man dying and I say outloud "Wow, a Made Man died, I wonder what happened." I don't think it has anything to do with so many Capos, Bosses and etc coming up. There are individual beefs that happen behind closed doors and in dark alley ways.
That's an interesting point. While I don't know exactly how hard it is to become a Consigliere, I do know that it's been a long road from Civilian to where I'm at now. Maybe too many people show too much potential? And they should be held back as much as possible. |
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| Reply by: Carmine_Ttrapani at Mar 26, '09 09:02 | |
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| Im a new guy around these streets, but i have noticed this, when all these high ranks fell yesterday i looked at the funerals, and the emptiness was shocking to me. | |
| Reply by: cwheel3915 at Mar 26, '09 09:12 | |
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| Its hard to be a made man!Also there should only be one consigliere in a family and the right hand man should be ranked boss and the subcrew leaders should be ranked capo.No higher no lower.Consigliere's or any other ranks should'nt be crew leaders.Only Dons and Godfather's/Godmother's should be crew leaders! | |
| Reply by: Vito_Morello at Mar 26, '09 09:42 | |
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Vito, where do you get this information? Or is this just your opinion? As far as I'm concerned, there are external and internal ranks. Everyone sees the "Made Man, Capo, Boss, etc.", but it's the rank inside the family that matters. The external ranks represent how hard the person has worked, and the internal ranks are to keep order within the family. |
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| Reply by: Ares at Mar 26, '09 10:00 | |
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Attaining the highest ranks available to us in this world has never been easier than it is today. This is evidenced by the sheer number of Godfathers, Dons & Consigs. No one can raise a viable argument to the contrary. Setting aside any relative "stability" of late, the governing causes of such easy ranking is a lack of consideration for age and virtually unlimited jail breaking opportunities. Lasting the test of time was perhaps the main challenge in days gone by when it came to becoming even a Consig. How long must one survive for such an honour now? Three weeks? The coveted rank of Don can now even be realised by lowly members of a family when once was reserved for leaders only. This is neither here nor there however. The essential point to take from my ramblings is that people don't know they are born. Change is a good thing so long as it does not catastrophically violate our way of life. This tragic eventuality has already arrived. People are cruising around with ranks that only the best of the best could once have reached. Mediocrity is not a quality we should reward yet we do so on a daily basis. This is all very tragic. |
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| Reply by: HipposYawn at Mar 26, '09 10:08 | |
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| Identity nods in agreement.... | |
| Reply by: Identity at Mar 26, '09 10:55 | |
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In my opinion there are a few different topic being discussed here at the same time. I can't agree agree with the fact that we have many Godfathers. That role is designed one for every city, so unless you have more than 7, then we can't complain about that. Any person that ranked to whatever rank, obviously worked enough that the Gods decided to made the choice available for the CL to promote him. I think a point was well made a few posts ago, this has to do with not putting in the effort to be social, either from going out to bars and businesses, but also the lack of effort for the surviving friends to go pay respect to the various funerals. I think the whole social side, of the game is being left aside and a lot of mobsters have just become glorified earners or only work within the HQs. Real prosperity comes from forming alliances and getting our name known in other districts and other cities. Maybe then, people will be mourned longer and ranks will become more meaningful. And maybe we can throw some numbers to match our opinions. What would be a healthy percentage of the population for each rank. I'll throw some factoids: Population: around 500 Godfathers = 0.6 % Dons = 2.8 % Consiglieris = 5 % Bosses = 5.8 % Capos = 5.4 % Made Men = 20.2 % All other sponsored associates = 60.4 % Does that seem unbalanced in any way? |
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| Reply by: Adrian at Mar 26, '09 13:02 | |
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Percentages mean not a jot. I could paint you a fancy picture with statistics too if you would like. Population: 500(ish) Excellent People: 1 (Me) This does not seem to be proportional at all. Oh wait it is a subjective figure. Just like it is your subjective opinion that 2.8% of the population being Dons is a good thing. |
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| Reply by: HipposYawn at Mar 26, '09 13:22 | |
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| Deano and my good Butt_Ox, you bring up excellent points. It's disgusting isn't seeing our values and traditions cast aside for convenience. Our ways, they aren't guidelines - but are sacred rules. If bosses and family heads are going to behave in such a matter as described - they are only pissing on themselves and it sure smells. | |
| Reply by: Sal_Giaquinto at Mar 26, '09 13:57 | |
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Yo Adrian... Thanks for the stats but whether or not the ranks are out of balance is not the issue here. Even if it was,should not a mademan in a family be something great like it used to be? I guess what i am getting at here is, if you are gonna promote someone, maybe think first: "Am I gonna even say anything if this schmuck dies?" if your answer is no, maybe re-evaluation of your promotion qualifications is needed. |
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| Reply by: Deano at Mar 26, '09 14:03 | |
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