Feeling Furor in Response to "The Money Heist" Part II

 

Feeling Furor in Response to Four Seasons of La Casa de Papel,

“The Money Heist” – Part II

 

His followers, despite various human subplots of romance, parenthood, family strife and extended mealtimes, are not any more deserving of our sympathy.  Despite the seduction of Tokyo’s tantalizing body and red pepper temperament, she is a murderer, thief and willing participant in terrorizing and enslaving innocent citizens to enrich herself.  Rio’s self-effacing adoration and love for Tokyo demands the incalculable cost of human life to enable them to abscond to paradise.  Denver and Stockholm’s relationship which tangentially involves a young child whose father is powerless to determine his son’s rearing is built upon manipulation.  She receives her alias as she submits to the mental coercion of “the Professor” and his crew.  Denver begins a sexually illicit affair with her.  Repeated sexual encounters erode her cognitive defenses.  Her aimlessness as the pregnant mistress of a fellow mint employee ripens her willingness to join any group that will receive her considering her brokenness and lack of identity.  Nairobi esteems her thievery above the divine gift of her son.  Her appeals to the contrary, in the touching scenes about her desire to be reunited with son, do not eradicate her willful criminal personality.  As Denver’s father, Moscow is a quintessential follower who loses his life in obsequious deference to “the Professor” and his followers.  How did this hardworking man allow himself to be seduced by the plans for an improbable theft? 

 

Berlin is the unabashed, suave and debonair Italian brother of “the Professor.”  A talented, cosmopolitan and resourceful man who possesses formidable chutzpah, Berlin easily could have become a chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 company or president of a research university; were he to direct his gifts and endowments towards legitimate objectives of bettering human existence.  On the contrary, he enflames his character defects of white-collar deviance and criminality to appease his bohemian instincts.  His unrelenting narcissism propels him to choose death in a tunnel having forced a helpless mother to join in his demise.  Similar to Moscow, Helsinki is a perfect sycophant who follows orders in lock step even debasing himself sexually to satisfy the sniveling and degenerate physical compulsions of Palermo.  Tormented with unrequited love but possessed of fierce intensity and intellect, Palermo is a human volcano who compounds the criminality of his fellow thieves.  Lest we inappropriately root for these people, it is important to remember that they directly victimized a few hundred people and harmed millions if not billions of undeserving global citizens.  As they frolic around the world inexpressibly enjoying themselves at the expense of hardworking common people, they have no regard for the longstanding damage that they have done.  Insisting that their actions are justified due to the excesses of the Spanish government and other nations is gratuitous.  These people are murderers, thieves and terrorists regardless of their incidental human depictions.

 

This fictional yet repulsive “Professor” ironically exposes excesses of reprehensible national governments.  Consider the threat to democracy, individual and human rights, rule of law, civilian governmental leadership and privacy as depicted by the military and governmental leaders in the fourth season.  Is torture permissible?  Are there any crimes that warrant torture?  Do democratic nations ever have any justification for use of these tactics?  As it relates to terrorism, most people immediately approve of these tactics to prevent any occurrence of mass killing.  However, a serious problem arises as it pertains to gradations of torture.  Whereas the use of waterboarding and other techniques by intelligence agencies to avert terrorist operations may be permissible, is it alright for local police departments?  Who draws the lines?  Who guards observations to ensure adherence?  Is this governmental pragmatism morally, ethically and intellectually defensible? 

 

“Truth is stranger than fiction.”  As I watched the fourth season of The Money Heist, I reflected upon the George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney Administration which ordered White House and U S Department of Justice lawyers to compose a legal rationale for torture in defiance of American democratic and constitutional ideals and violation of international law.  Moreover, it seems probable that a sitting Associate Justice of the U S Supreme Court may have participated in this superfluous attempt to rationalize torture.  Because the Republican majority of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U S Senate refused to acquire, release and utilize relevant documents from the National Archives and Records Administration, we presently cannot know whether Justice Kavanaugh contributed to any of these torture rationale memoranda.  Additionally, we cannot know whether he perjured himself under oath before the U S Senate on multiple occasions in 2004, 2006 and 2018.  Each time, he appeared as a nominee for the federal judiciary.  His confirmation to a lower court required a second hearing.  In each appearance before the U S Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh failed to satisfy reasonable inquiries and objections regarding whether he contributed to legally sanctioning torture.  The precarious and questionable use of claims of executive privilege essentially suppressed all relevant evidence.  Its absence created the opportunity for unaccountable perjury.  As I write, reasonable American citizens remain bewildered as to whether someone who possibly perjured himself on four separate occasions before the U S Senate should remain as an Associate Justice of the U S Supreme Court.  Nevertheless, this fictional drama unveils realistic threats to popular sovereignty and democratic principles perpetrated by governmental and political leaders who are bag handlers for the banking classes and economic elite.

 

My furor toward “the Professor” and his fellow thieves results from their inability to assist common people.  They mimic the same behavior and excesses of the people they disdain; thereby they leave structural injustices and inequities in place.  Average people need leaders who seek wholesale transformation.  They require committed leaders who will empower them toward self-determination.  Were average people to save in large numbers and amounts, eliminate unsecured debt particularly credit card debt, embrace entrepreneurship and patronize non-traditional finance entities like green new deal banking, they could combat the systemic exploitation of the banking and monied classes.  Common folk do not have expensive lobbyists advocating for them in crafting and enacting favorable legislation.  They can fight on their own behalf if they unite and combine their assets.  Individually, they are left to feel powerless as they do not believe that their dollars and cents can have any meaningful impact.  Consider the difference in profits a boycott of movies by African Americans would make?  What sum of profits would be lost if all people of color in the United States joined this effort?  Imagine the changes that would occur in the cosmetics industry if girls and women who oppose ill treatment of animals refuse to make purchases for two weeks?  The masses do not need rogues whether insincere political leaders or contemptible felons to lead them. 

 

The hypocrisy of “the Professor” and his crew reflect comparable insincerity and inconsistency from myriad political leaders across the ideological spectrum.  Whether the left-most progressive or the staunchest far-right conservative, it is imperative that anyone seeking to lead possesses the requisite character, intelligence and multiple gifts necessary to govern.  I write as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.  With few exceptions, governmental leaders were unprepared.  Regrettably, a few heads of state remain clueless.  In the United States, racial tensions stemming from systemic police brutality and bureaucratic murder of African American males have erupted like an active volcano.  Protesters of all ethnicities and ideological persuasions continually demand systematic changes in policing, legislation and accountability.  This intractable racial strife with origins in the founding of the United States compounds the coronavirus crisis.  Many of our political leaders appear to lack ability, imagination and insight to respond effectively to these socially, politically and economically challenging dilemmas.