Hey Wisecrack, Jared here. Today we’re talking about everyone’s favorite psychopath. A man who is one twirly moustache away from being a hipster. The mayor of pee-pee pants city – Negan. And yes, there are spoilers ahead. Despite being the latest antagonist of the show, Negan gets an inordinate amount of praise from fans. Negan is hard not to love, in part because he’s just so damn charming. It might not be just his undeniable charisma that makes us gravitate towards him. He is one of the most effective leaders of the post-apocalypse. But the real question is: how effective, exactly?? Sure, we could leave it as “not very,” because of course someone is going to murder or overthrow him, ((why?)) because, well, this has all happened before. But I digress. Negan’s cruelty is neither novel, nor irrational. With a little help from philosophy and psychology, we can better understand how Negan is the perfect dictator. A leader, especially a post-apocalyptic one, can spend all day putting people in their place, rooting out insurrection as it appears, and awing people with the occasional …show more content…
spectacle of violence. But a much more effective dictator can get people to police themselves, and Negan is a master of this craft. Negan is terrifying, as many dictators are, but what defines his terror is his seeming omnipresence. He’s everywhere, and always watching. In fact, the finale of season 6 is like one giant proof of concept for this: Negan’s Saviors let Rick’s gang believe they’ve somehow evaded them, with subtle reminders that they’re always one step ahead of them. Negan even admits that the whole thing was orchestrated to strike fear into them. Negan’s method isn’t so different from a system devised by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham for prisons: a design that would make it impossible for a prisoner to know whether or not the guards were watching him: the pre-electronic equivalent of CCTV. It was called the panopticon, from the Greek term for “all-seeing.” French philosopher Michel Foucault said that Bentham’s panopticon was “power reduced to its ideal form,” a kind of “political technology.” When people are always, but maybe not, under surveillance, they internalize disciplinary power, they become their own police. Negan takes panoptic power and infuses it with his own brand of Lucille-infused terror. Daryl tries to escape, but soon realizes it was all a ploy – the door was left unlocked to encourage Daryl’s escape, only to be surrounded by Negan when he’s on the cusp of freedom. On one level, this is pure psychological manipulation: causing Daryl, and the viewer, to question reality: is this a chance to escape, or an elaborate trap? It also inculcates in Daryl this kind of panoptic terror. Negan is always watching, whether you realize it or not- so you best stay in line. It’s for this reason that Negan is so obsessed with finding the missing guns from Alexandria. Sure, it’s part “I don’t want Team Rick to use them to shoot me,” but it’s also to further ingrain the point: you can’t hide anything from Negan. Even saviors are constantly fearful for what Negan will find out. Negan’s followers saying “I am Negan” reinforces this constant surveillance. There’s no one to confide in, no one to trust, because they all have become little satellites of surveillance. Even we, the viewer, have managed to internalize Negan’s terror. Reeling from the loss of the one of the few characters we still gave a shit about, we all collectively clench our buttholes when people break the rules. Negan has achieved the goals Bentham’s panopticon without the actual technology. He “breaks” people with his campaign of terror. To “break” someone is to internalize Negan’s set of rules. Bentham’s panopticon doesn’t “break” prisoners in the same terrifying way, but the goal is the same: to make people police themselves, to behave as if someone else is watching, whether or not they actually are. The perfect example of this is Dwight, who admits to Daryl that he, too, thought he would never kneel to Negan. Now, he fully embodies Negan’s rules, despite the fact he shows clear signs of hating him. But violence and surveillance alone don’t provide the best means for controlling people. People find ways to be unseen, and even when they’re being watched, don’t go on performing their jobs to the best of their ability. But Negan is smarter than that. Negan is art 20th Century totalitarian, and also part 21st Century corporate manager. He understands talent development. Those brazen enough to defy him are often spared, while their friends are killed instead; their rebellious tendencies are raw talent for Savior Inc. to develop. He’s also keenly aware of the dangers of talentless sycophants, cutting out yes-men before they ruin the corporate culture. Negan knows the secret sauce of motivation, and as a result, he does more than just punish people, he rewards them.
Negan’s response to people may seem erratic- as if his bouts of violence are driven by his temper, but I’d like to argue that it’s all very deliberate. He’s developed a whole points system to incentivize work, and while consistent rewards are a great way to motivate people, psychologists argue there’s an even better way to get people to do shit: reward them randomly. Behavioral psychologists have found that when rewards are unexpected, and unscheduled, they are far more effective in promoting certain behaviors. Don’t just buy a worker a cup of coffee every time he hits a deadline, or every 5th time, make it a surprise. If you don’t believe me: go play a slot machine,. Random bonuses and treasures will keep you playing for hours. And this is what Negan does all the
time. There’s also Carl’s stay with Negan, where it’s not only physical rewards, but emotional niceties that are randomly doled out. Carl kills Negan’s people, and expects to die, or be mutilated, but instead Negan takes him in and commends his bad-assery. But not to overdo the kindness, he makes Carl take off his eye-covering, makes fun of him, but then apologizes when it goes too far. Negan then asks Carl to sing a song at the threat of violence, and intersperses violent bat swings with compliments. This strategy, generally and unfortunately, works, and if Negan seems like an abusive boyfriend, he should: this random reinforcement is also used by abusive partners to keep their victims in relationships. Another way to understand Negan is through the lense of sweat-stained t-shirt aficionado Slavoj Zizek and his works on totalitarianism. “Far from imposing on us a firm set of standards to be complied with,” Zizek says, “the totalitarian master suspends (moral) punishment. His secret injunction is: ‘You may.’” This is Negan to a tee. The saviors are like a well-ordered anarchy. Aside from “the rules” to which Negan constantly refers, his followers are free to murder and pillage. According to the Ziz, the totalitarian master, “tells us that the prohibitions which regulate social life and guarantee a minimum of decency are worthless, just a device to keep the common people at bay – we, on the other hand, are free to let ourselves go, to kill, rape, plunder, but only insofar as we follow the master.” Through this lens, Negan’s dictatorship makes perfect sense in context of the real-world totalitarian governments: people’s deepest desires are pandered to, so long as they don’t conflict with the ruling establishment- Wanna steal and murder? Go to town! Fuck the rules. Just don’t fuck with MY rules. So Negan is a pretty effective dictator, but is he an effective ruler? The problem with heavy-handed dictatorship is that it breeds problems, the kind of problems we’re sure to see as Rick, Ezekial, and maybe even Dwight, rebel against Negan. It’s the same problem of real-life dictatorships that are constantly threatened by assassination plots, insurrections, and so on. Maybe Negan should have brushed up on his Machiavelli who famously said “he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it.” What do you guys think? Has Negan perfected the science of control, or is he sowing the seeds of his own demise?
In the beginning of Something Wicked This Way Comes the story introduces Jim Nightshade and William Halloway. Jim is an ornery and impatient teenager, desperately wanting to break free from the yolk of childhood to become the adult he has always desired to be and Will wants to stay inside his comfort zone, which involves him staying a child for as long as he is able to. Something Wicked This Way Comes accurately addresses the sometimes difficult transition from adolescence into early adulthood.
“I should be grateful?” Negan said “ No Rick you should be grateful i didn’t kill one of you when i saw this sorry mess of a food pantry.” At this point rositas fed up with all this disrespectful talk Negan is doing. She’s so tiered of him all the nagging and murdering and stealing he’s doing. Rosita grabbed her knife and threw it at Negan knowing good and well that knife throwing isnt her experticet. So the knife flys by Negans head and misses by about 6 inches.
most evil characters and he is a character who stands out among all of the
perfect villain. A villain who makes work out out of everything and dominates the stage by bringing life
A leader is not a super hero. They may be able to fix many problems, but they cannot fix them all. Some natural leaders may appear to be able to solve any issue. However, just as any other person, they have their own weaknesses. Just as superman was weak to kryptonite, some leaders may have shortcomings to public speaking, one on one communication, organization or hundreds of other weaknesses that could be catastrophic if put into the wrong situation. A leader who brushes up these weaknesses will be able to work through even the most trying conflict.
The conceptualization of violence is portrayed through the character of Ned, the protagonist. Ned does not wish to be violent; he does it to abide repute. The Kelly gang remained up for what is ethically right. The motivation behind why Ned is savage is by virtue of the fact that he was erroneously blamed for attempted murder. Ned becomes enraged when
Working together, puzzle pieces create a unique and complete image. Own their own, however, they are nothing more than just a small part of a bigger picture. Old Dan and Little Ann, two dogs from the book Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, are similar to puzzle pieces. They work very well as part of team, but when they are separated, they do not do much. They are also like puzzle pieces in that each is different, yet similar. The two dogs are alike and different in both the way they look and the way they deal with conflict.
Growing up as a youngster in the 1990s, it was impossible to escape the popularity of R.L. Stine’s book series, Goosebumps. Come to think of it, that could be one of the many reasons for my undying devotion to the horror genre. Regardless, Stine’s novels were one of the cornerstones of a generation – incomparable to any other youngster novel series that was one the market, at least from a male perspective, I suppose.
The premise that show runner Vince Gilligan pitched was simple, “We’re going to turn Mr. Chips into Scarface.” It was a bold claim at the time that most television executives dismissed as a bad idea. You would take the show’s main character and slowly but surely turn him into the antagonist. This was unlike most shows at the time who dealt with antiheroes, they had almost always padded them out with sympathetic qualities or redeeming actions throughout their respective seasons like Tony Soprano or Vic Mackey of The Shield. No show had ever fully committed to the idea that its lead character could truly be a villain. Yet Walter White’s transformation from a down on his luck, cancer ridden teacher to a depraved drug kingpin named Heisenberg has
In Finding Nemo, the child, Nemo, an adventurous Clown Fish who yearns for adventure and disobeying his mentors, lives with his overprotective father, in the peaceful anemone, away from danger and risks. Anemone, stinging all unwanted predators, guards the clownfish family. Due to their mutual relationship, anemone will not harm clown fish, protecting the species. The anemone and coral reef, acting as the ordinary world, protects the Lester family from unwanted intruders and invaders, keeping their life smooth, simple, and steady. Yet, Nemo, who is eager to explore outside of their reef, will take part in any mischievous activity that will anger his father, proving to be disobedient, and defiant. For example, when Nemo notices a small fishing
They inspired the followers not only just to believe the leader in personal, but to believe the leader’s potential to create a better future for the organisation or country. Angela Merkel is a good example of transformational leader. She transformed Germany into a strong European power nowadays no matter in economic or social. Due to the challenge of global climate changes, she is concern about this issue by ensuring Germany continues to have the largest solar and wind power industries in the world. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, she ended the usage of nuclear power in Germany. She shut down all 17 nuclear reactors as an immediate action. Chancellor Merkel used her power to persuade all heads of European nations to cut carbon emissions and make renewable energy sources. She has lead Germany to do something that other big nations considered too risky and expensive. Her environmental policy was to prevent any nuclear disaster happened in Germany. On the other hand, she also preferred environmental technology to be an important income in future. Renewable energy industry can generate new jobs and cut down costs. She is creating a better future and willing to take risk to change the world. This transformation is not an easy task. However, she continued to persuade and the goals of its 20-20-20 Plan is in the halfway to
When you judge someone for their appearance, it will hurt them and the person might not be what you think. In the freak the mighty max was judged for his appearance because he looks like his dad. Max’s dad, Mr kane is in jail, but in jail he’s called killer kane. Everyone sees max as his dad so max does not have a friend and has to live at his grandparents' house. Max life will change when a little boy moves next door.
...ings people together towards the greater good. It is at this moment that a leader truly matures, leaves themselves behind, and leads by getting the most out of other people. For Mandela, this allowed him to establish relationships with his jailors, they could disagree with him all they want but nobody could question his integrity and will. Mandela made people feel superior, and in attaining this he also rose as a leader.
...lanned and things are just not going to work out. A leader with is experience and capability should be able to quickly assess the causes and try and fix those problem.
In this week's chapters, I noticed a pattern of self-destructiveness behavior within the tenants. For example, Pam and Ned were approved for a good apartment in the Mexican south side which they were kicked out of because of Ned's drunken encounter with a neighbor. This led them to find a new place but this could have been avoided if Ned wouldn't have made a scene. I don't feel any empathy for Ned, I feel for Pam and her daughters who deal with a racist person every day. "One day he got a kick out of getting all the girls to march around the house chanting, "White power! (239)." This comment confirms that he is a racist and a white supremacist. Normally I would bash on Ned and how horrible of a person he is but through this book I've been