"Corruption Is How We Win!"


One of the many interrelated plots in the movie "Syriana," is how the oil company executives of "connex" (as in: ex-con, criminals, con you), and "killen" (as in: to physically kill you, to make a killing in profits), seem to only care about getting rich and are willing to do almost anything at anyone's expense to make more money.

There is a profound and memorable monologue that nails it on the head, where Danny Dalton (played by Tim Blake Nelson) tells Bennett Holiday (played by Jeffrey Wright):

"Corruption ain't nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the
form of regulation. that's Milton Friedman, he got a goddamn Nobel Prize.
we have laws against it, precisely so we can get away with it.
corruption is our protection.
corruption is what keeps us safe and warm.
corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of fighting each other for
scraps of meat out in the streets.
corruption is how we win!"

for oil execs who are supposed to be educated, sophisticated and worldly, they talk and act like a bunch of gangsters.

this speaks volumes about our so-called elite...