With the recent premiere of Narcos season two, it's only appropriate to take a moment to appreciate our favorite bad guys. The empire business thrives in modern society, with the kingpins resembling almost some kind of "Robin Hood" in our society, really becoming our favorite bad guys.
It's just a TV show sure, it's glamorized sure and it paints the life of a narcoterrorist in a way that is hyped and romanticized. But something needs to be appreciated about the underlying thoughts that go through the mind of someone so intertwined in this crazy business.
What makes these guys so hard to despise? So many people become their followers, and their existence becomes almost like that of a celebrity, swarmed in the streets by loyal followers.
The story of these people comes off as very interesting compared to the "Godfather"type stories that are common in American media and are celebrated in Hollywood by amazing movies. However, from shows like "Narcos," you get the view of a man who came from absolutely nothing to become one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.
Robin Hood is a beloved character by all through the stories that we read, on our own, and under the pressures of an English short story class. In all of these stories, he is loved because he ends up dismantling the rich and oppressive people in order to support those around him that are not as privileged and cannot live up to the expectations that they one day hope to set for themselves.
Don't get me wrong, in no way am I glamorizing drug dealing, nor am I supporting any of the things that people like Escobar and El Chapo did or are doing currently. It's interesting to take society's view of them and to understand that many of these people were respected by their communities to the point where their own communities hid them from authorities or made sure that they would travel on routes that were not patrolled by police or any sort of governmental force.
America is a civilized nation, perhaps the most civilized in the world in terms of education and overall success rate of those who put the time and effort in to better themselves as an individual and look towards the benefit of themselves along with the benefit of a society. It is because of these things and this education that we receive that we know how to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad.
We have a clear definition of who is a good guy and a bad guy. But in the sense of the Narcos, terrorists, or any sort of other bad guy in the world that has amassed his or her own following, What's right and who's bad or good is all based on perspective, there is never a right definition of who is right and clearly a number of people think the bad guys are right in order to be supporting them.
But there really are no good guys, there are bad guys and there are even badder guys. We are trying to work for ourselves, no one is truly altruistic or doing something purely for the sake of giving back. Good is a glamorized term in itself, a skewed definition separating those who are too scared to admit they are bad inherently.
After all, Pablo was Robin Hood for a reason, wasn't he?
