edit: wondering as well "what christianity did to the roman empire" (and how that compare to what Mandela did to apartheid)...
Christianity transformed the Roman Empire into itself, from within.
Mandela transformed South Africa into a nation in his own image - one founded upon a narrative of humility, forgiveness, and celebration of diversity.
Incidentally, Ghandi's nonviolent protest did the same basic thing: it transformed the colonials into individuals who could do nothing but respect their victims as human beings, and in so doing see them as like each other.
Add to this the great archetype of self-sacrificial love: Jesus.
The process in each case is the same:
- treat your enemies in a self-sacrificial way
- don't oppose your enemies; don't fight them; don't hate them; give them respect and sacrifice yourself for this
- at some point the enemies start to adopt the same stance toward you that you take toward them
- henceforth, they can no longer be your enemies; you've transformed them - at your own expense
- the revolution is thus complete; the narrative concluded, leaving no fallen mighty ones to rise up again and wreak revenge.
Nice essays. But not even par with the course with The Sound and the Fury's "story" which leaves obvious clues as to who The Salamander is and who the narrator may be. As the only main character not called by his real name, it is blatantly obvious, it is Ryan Wrights. The fixer. Is he the narrator too? That's for you, the reader, to decide. Does it matter? Not really. The piece is priceless as literature and as a glimpse into the gutters of the darkest side of the world of crypto. But nothing, really, that we did not read and subsequently saw in The Wolf of Wall Street. Only difference is that these "ronin" and his leaders are cowardly criminals operating in the dark and, for now at least, in a world not protected by conventional laws. Given the natural cowardice and lack of morals, even at the criminal level, there's not going to be any vengeance or retribution. These cowardly caricatures of ronin will simply take the fact that their leader left them to dry and will continue on, as clumsy foot soldiers, hoping for another leader to allow them to keep on victimizing innocents... or idiots, as the case might be.
Bobsurplus is done, but not Robert. He will come back as Keanu2 or whatever and continue doing the exact same thing. Until one of the cowards -it will have to be a new one-, becomes the real ronin, the enforcer that jumps from the cowardly protection of the dark to the real world and hangs Robert by the ball one morning, potentially in Barbados. Or Thailand. Or Cabo. Same will be the fate of The Salamander/Gekko. Or, maybe, if they keep on playing their cards right, neither the FBI nor impending regulation, will affect them and will die a "peaceful" death like Michael Corleone or even Vito. Most likely though, Robert will continue being what he has always been and will ever be: a travelling salesman, rather pathetic and with extreme limitations and flaws that will end his life way earlier than would otherwise been natural and with Ryan being shot on any corner, at dusk, probably by mistake.