Law 4: The 48 Laws of Power in the Sopranos

when you are trying to impress people with words the more you say the more common you appear and the less in control the fundamental question is will i be as effective as a boss like my dad was and i will be even more so but until i am it's going to be hard to verify that i think i'll be more effective even if you are saying something banal it will seem original if you make it vague open-ended and sphinx-like you're no problem to read you are your own worst enemy powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less the more you say the more likely you are to say something foolish some of you know i've had nine pictures under my subspecies four in the south beach trumpet series alone while the own worst enemy line may have only somewhat worked on tony due to the context of the experience she told me that i'm my own worst enemy that's kind of a cliche isn't it oh yeah the bd little carmine remains the perfect extreme example of someone who looks more and more foolish the longer they speak so much so that probably just his picture next to the phrase always say less than necessary was enough to convey that aspect of law 4. similarly he also possibly represents an equally perfect extreme example of the flip side to law 4 which we will get into later but there are other aspects of the law that come into play in the sopranos as well in evaluating those aspects we will be looking into people who were away for a while and then came back such as richie april phil leotardo tony b and feach but we will pay closer attention to ralph sufferetto specifically his dealings with paulie walnuts jackie jr johnny sack and tony soprano with silvio giving a lesson in negotiating along the way one of green's overarching premises in law 4 is that human beings are machines of interpretation which work overtime when lacking information to draw from when it comes to words this can lead the mind to go into many directions there are worse things that can happen to a person than cancer which is something that will come up again later but this same premise applies to reputations when someone is not around for a long time to provide a true image of themselves their reputation often doesn't match their reality which is exactly what happened in green's first example roman general coriolanus in the 5th century bc coriolanus was a roman military hero who had won many battles and saved rome multiple times since he was always away on the battlefield no one really knew him and he became a legendary figure upon returning from his long absence coriolanus decided to pursue power in the political arena so he ran for consul one of the highest positions you can hold during his first speech the crowd was so mesmerized by his scars and old war stories that they paid no attention to what his actual stances were from there his speeches became increasingly more aggressive and demeaning towards the people which ended up costing him the election it's at this point he decides to give yet another speech this time to the senators convincing them not to distribute a shipment of grain for free as they had planned to while also advocating giving the government entirely over to the patricians news of this spread like wildfire and riots ensued but even after the population calmed down they demanded that coryolanas apologized publicly and if he did they would forgive him unfortunately for him he was unable to keep his tongue in check and during his apology speech his insults just made the crowd angrier the guys that work for me are asking for head his head the patricians managed to prevent him from being killed but he was banished and as green points out if he had only maintained the aura around his name and kept his true intentions secret simply by saying less he may have actually gotten elected and achieved his anti-democratic goals while being away for a long time may mean the battlefield in cory alanis's case in the sopranos it usually means jail except for little carmine and ralphie in which case it means miami but either way their reputations benefited one way or another by their absence with little carmine his absence didn't exactly grow his reputation but let's be honest his presence would have only hurt his reputation so in that regards he was better off in florida but with the guys who went to jail for a long time like ricciaprill phil leotardo tony blandetto and feech lamanna we can see similar things play out richie april provides an excellent example not only of how a reputation can improve in jail but also of how individual levels of familiarity can impact perception tony had thought richie was a good guy before he got out of jail [ __ ] creep oh rich what happened to that man in a can meadow but big [ __ ] who was much closer in age to richie and probably more familiar knew better you're in a little bit of denial into richie was always a disturbed kid also like coriolanus richie might have been more successful with his rebellion if he had soft pedaled it a little bit instead he engaged in some minor trash talk and then essentially came out and asked albert baris to join in a coup granted richie's chances of success still would have been quite slim but nevertheless they would have been higher another person whose reputation was arguably enhanced while in prison and probably would have been more successful holding power if he could have bit his tongue was phil leotardo now i say arguably because he was a capo in a new york family when he went to jail so he obviously carried some weight but he did end up becoming boss fairly shortly after being released obviously the death of carmine senior jimmy patril snitching on johnny sack and doc santoro whatever happened there all helped speed up the process for phil but he was still part of a large new york family which would have had plenty of capos to choose from either way once he was on top it was a single comment and a moment of tension that ended up costing him when this is over we're gonna sit down i hope so i can't hear you you're breaking up i said i hope and right there phil sank himself this is not one of those instances where a message can be interpreted in unpredictable ways it's not like he wants to talk to butch about his 401k and stock options moving forward while this statement may not have been specific the message was quite clear butch was in trouble not surprisingly butch gave the okay for tony to kill phil shortly thereafter and this brings us to the guy who kicked off phil's fit of anger tony blandetto in the case of tony b it's easy to see where his stint in jail increased tony soprano's reverence of him due to guilt but it may have unduly enhanced his overall reputation with tony soprano as well i had high hopes when you got out yeah a guy like you braved balls if you'd [ __ ] be straight with me i could use all that tony clearly envisions him having the potential to be this top flight gangster and while there's no dispute that he is excellent as muscle what evidence do we really have that he's incredibly intelligent other than the iq test aside from his working knowledge of massage therapy we rarely see him do anything smart nor does he engage in any of the higher-minded rackets of all the people released from prison the one who has the closest although not perfect parallel to coriolanus is feech lamanna just like with coryolannis initially upon features return everyone is mesmerized by his stories but she still wanted more she's [ __ ] nuts so i'm wearing these pointy featherweights and they stick the toe in and i'm [ __ ] it with it but he proceeds to get more and more aggressive eventually becoming outright hostile i don't like the way i'm being talked and ultimately gets banished rather than killed now while feech may be the closest overall parallel to the first example he is not the character that comes into play most when evaluating the fourth law in its entirety that distinction belongs to ralph ziffaredo like with little carmine his presence would only hurt his reputation although in ralphie's case it's sarcasm and careless words that once said can't be taken back which would prove to be his downfall we see sarcasm right off the bat from ralphie who's cool you're the boss you get to put in anybody you want over the crew you're a captain ralphie when i say you're a captain and i'm gonna turn up my hearing aid so i don't miss it and we can see the tension it causes but ralphie just won't stop from there we can see how his careless words increase tensions directly within the family like with paulie walnuts indirectly through those close to the family like jackie jr with other families like with johnny sack and finally with tony soprano himself which ends up costing ralphie his life with paulie his sarcastic insults show both aspects of the fourth law while his jabs may cause anger i can't believe this why not last year you believe that flying saucer was obvious rutherford they also show the other reason to say less the more you speak the more likely you are to say something dumb which paulie is known to do and people will call you out on it the chinese prince michael that being said during the negotiations to settle the no-show job conflict between the two sill employs the negotiation tactic advocated by the fourth law to perfection henry kissinger was known for replying to offers with is that the best you can do when they came back with a new offer they would get the same response finally when they say it was the best offer they could do he says fine i guess i'll read it this time still employs the same tactic during those negotiations come on ralph what's the real number to which ralphie essentially tries to maintain his position prompting still to say here it is and this comes from for the duration you will give poorly five carpenter jobs now why would still ask what the real number is if he already knew what tony said because if ralph gave a higher number he could accept it with jackie jr we circle right back around to things being interpreted in unpredictable ways we see from the beginning that in an attempt to win him over ralphie is fairly open with jackie jr about the past i'm still sick over it i caught the clap from some hippie broad i was [ __ ] my dick was dripping like a busted pipe but it's the telling of the story of jackie senior and tony robbing the card game that pretty much sets the ball of jackie jr's death in motion now to be fair jackie jr probably didn't have much of a shelf life to begin with due to his stupidity although ralphie probably didn't expect him to take that story as encouragement to rob the card game but by far the most notable instance where ralph's mouth stirred up trouble was the jenny sack joke like robert greene says the momentary satisfaction of the joke is often not worth the price you pay and in this instance it almost cost ralphie his life nevertheless his initial position was to downplay his own culpability and redirect it back to johnny sack yeah well [ __ ] him as highfalutin [ __ ] who does he think he is so walter raleigh i bring this clip up specifically because sir walter raleigh is actually referenced in law 4 when he speaks of how the earl of essex was allowed to live despite many transgressions but it was an insult to queen elizabeth that cost him his life when ralphie finally does try and put the issue to rest with johnny sack the important thing to remember in this situation is that an apology is an insult because it means that you're admitting that you did it in the fourth law robert greene speaks of a russian revolutionary who was sentenced to be hanged but the rope broke during the attempt normally this sort of thing just would have been considered divine intervention and he would have been let go but he decided to shout that they couldn't even make ropes right in russia upon hearing this the tsar refused to sign his release and he was hanged the next day when all he had to do was keep quiet and he would have been free similarly if rafi had said nothing like tony instructed he may not have been in the clear but he would have been way better off than he was after insulting johnny sack you know something ralph not only you would think you're a lion [ __ ] prick i should have let tony chop your head off a year ago fortunately for ralphie he was able to ease tensions with johnny sack unfortunately for ralphie he was never able to do so with tony which is what ended up costing him his life as previously mentioned we see tensions between ralphie and tony from the beginning but if we look specifically at both the fallout from his beating tracy to death and the fight in which he ultimately died we can see how tony played things very well according to law 4 while ralphie did not after tony beat him for killing tracy ralphie was furious and decided to get a jab in by turning down a drink as green warned he may have gotten a moment of pleasure but it was not worth the trouble it caused after tony disinvites him from thanksgiving he grows worried and goes to johnny sack who convinces him to apologize at this meeting you can see tony act almost perfectly in accordance with law 4. the only thing you could argue that he did wrong was speak first unless you consider ralphie's throat clearing as speaking first since he was forced to do it in order to initiate the conversation you want to see me from there tony either remains silent or asks open-ended questions allowing ralphie to continue talking because the more you talk the more you reveal about yourself in this case it wasn't anything that everyone didn't already know that shouldn't happen like i said i was doing a lot of coke but you can see how the tactic got ralphie to be much more candid than he normally would be additionally tony silence to end the meeting had exactly the effect green predicted that it would and left ralphie feeling robbed and on edge not a thing john not a thank you not an apology nothing fortunately for ralphie gigi died taking a [ __ ] so tony was forced to make him a capo but made sure to keep him on edge by employing the same tactic when he told him ralphie's death is similar to the example given by sir walter raleigh about the earl of essex despite his many transgressions it was an insult that ended up costing him his life what are you a vegetarian you eat beef and sausage by the [ __ ] carlo of course we know that tony had tracy and or pyo mai fueling the viciousness of the attack but it was an insult that pushed tony over the edge similarly i can't imagine that all of the earl's transgressions were completely out of queen elizabeth's mind and that he was killed solely for the insult it's just that neither of them ever managed to master their tongue which is a critical aspect of law 4. green also points out that power is a game of appearance which is a concept the sopranos showcase tony and sylvia all they understand is appearances we'll buy a new car it'll raise my profile you watch i'll make captain and this is why you must say less than necessary because the more you talk the more likely you are to say something stupid or piss someone off however green points out that it can work to your advantage if done correctly you see the verbose aren't usually seen as sly and manipulative rather is hapless and unsophisticated so by talking more you can make yourself seem less intelligent than your mark making deception much easier which is what one fan theory suggests little carmine was doing all along but now whether or not that theory has legs is something i touch on in little carmine's machiavellian monday episode but as far as power law 4 is concerned if he was truly faking stupidity was able to see the coming turmoil and decided to wait to make his move the only reason he was able to back out in the manner he did without people being suspicious or him losing face is because it falls right in line with the perception of him being a sucker whereas if someone like johnny sack had done the exact same thing everyone would have immediately suspected something was up sometimes you got a player sucker to catch a sucker but that's law 21 well thanks for watching this episode here on bullywhispers as always like comment subscribe and i'll see you at the next score

Channel: Bully Whispers

Views: 102,830

Keywords: aj sopranos, carmela soprano, christopher moltisanti, furio sopranos, gloria trillo, hesh sopranos, james gandolfini, janice soprano, livia soprano, paulie walnuts, pine barrens, ralph cifaretto, ralphie sopranos, richie aprile sopranos, sopranos d girl, sopranos ending, Robert Greene, 48 laws of power

Id: XeFI09gLaig

Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 02 2022