Do you know who would not be led to the slaughter?
See, in a time of contention and fear, leadership is invaluable. It is both symbolic and encouraging to see a group, thought to be like X, have a leadership figure that rises up against it.
Exhibiting what is thought to be impossible can change the world.
Understand: Associating ideas matters.
It can make people believe that two previously unrealized things can belong together.
A few years later, when kids on these blocks were faced with the image of the German concentration camp, the memory of the gangsters would give them another image: tough Jews, Jews who will not be led to slaughter. What do you think Pep Strauss would do to a guy like Heinrich Himmler? Drill fifteen holes in him, the Kraut bastard! I sometimes think my father’s image of himself, how he faces the world, began with those first gangster encounters. Even though he did not follow their lead, they gave him the illusion of freedom. Who knows? Maybe I will end up like that. “Here’s my tip for the future,” one of the gangsters says. “Lose the ball; keep the stick.”
-Rich Cohen, Tough Jews
Reminded me of the movie Inglorious Bastards: