The Mafia Believed in a Leviathan. American Moguls Believe They Are Leviathan

A meditation on moral codes

Photo by Artem Budaiev on Unsplash

It came to me in conversation with a friend — an Italian-American, appropriately enough. I said something mildly sacrilegious about Europe, something that made him bristle in that way only Italian men can bristle, as if you have insulted both his grandmother and the Catholic Church in a single breath.

But the truth is, the thought didn’t come from my friend at all. It came from listening to Peter Zeihan on

Sam Harris

’s podcast — that merry geopolitical pyromaniac — laying out the fractures of the world order like a man describing weather systems made of steel and bone. As he spoke, the polemic began writing itself in my mind. I was literally laughing under my breath. The ironies were too ripe.

The mafia — that ancient confederation of thieves and killers — has a stronger moral operating system than the American business aristocracy now presiding over our decline.

Yes. I said that.

And I mean it.