Now he makes all the decisions Essay

threatening Q and Steel shows the power Bishop believes he possess. He believes that he has them cornered. He is so confident that he won’t be turned in that he shows up at Raheem’s funeral. He believes that the three of them should carry on with their lives as if nothing changed. He tries to force Q to hang out with him when he meets Q at his locker in school. He question’s Q about why he has not been around. When Q answers that he is not worried about hanging with Bishop. Bishop explains to him that he needs to be worried because he determines if Q and Steel lives or dies. The power of being able to take someone’s life (which he demonstrated twice with Raheem and the man in the store) had consumed him. Now he makes all the decisions. They cannot cut him off he won’t let them. It has even become a kind of game for him. They hide and avoid him, and he searches and finds them. This can be seen in Bishop’s smile when he explains to Q that he is crazy because he doesn’t care about anything. It’s funny to him that they fear him so much now that he has a gun, but feared him so little when he did not have a gun. This is what he always wanted, to be feared. He feels that as long as he is feared he is respected. But Bishop was wrong. He over estimated his power and although Q feared him, he refused to let Bishop control his life. And when he tries to take Q’s life, he fails and falls to his death. Bishop would not have gotten greedy for power and try to control everyone he may have lived. But as was stated previously, people will retaliate and defend themselves, so you cannot expect to live long if you threaten to kill people. Another example of this cycle of destruction is the movie Belly directed by Hype Williams. In Belly, DMX plays the character Tommy, a gangsta turned drug dealer who will do whatever it takes to make money. Tommy would do pretty much anything to get money. He doesn’t care about his girl friend Keisha, his underage mistress, or anything the is in the way of him making money. Tommy basically feels that the most important thing in his life is money everything else is expendable. For example, Keisha is in his life for sexual reasons. She is like an ornament. He cheats on her with an underage girl who gives him oral sex. To him they are both in his life because he has money, so he feels that as long as he has money they will stay around or simply be replaced. He dedicates none of his time or consideration to either one of the women. When Keisha goes to jail because of him, he doesn’t even attempt to do something the help her get out of jail. He simply tells Sincere to explain to her what happen. He feels as though he doesn’t have to do anything for her because she is not that important. She is there for his needs and nothing else. He has to power to tell her when to come, leave, shut up, and have sex with him. This is the power that money gives him. He knows this and tries to explain it to Sincere. He tells Sincere that money is the reason that they are on earth. They were put here to make money and receive all the benefits of money such as: women, and power. For Tommy it is the game of life. He is to make as much money he can anyway he can, and if he does he can have to benefits of money. Because Tommy has power he insults anyone he wants too. I am sure that he never thought that the guy who he made strip in the basement would try to get revenge on him. He felt that he was too powerful to be touched and if someone tried he would reach out and touch them. He also displays this power when he manipulates the two boys and plays them against each other which leads to them killing each other. But in the end Tommy realizes that he was stupid and you need more then money in life. You need people to look out for you like Keisha and Sincere were trying to do. Tommy believed that his power would stop people from setting him up, but he was wrong because the FEDs caught up with him. In his quest for money, Tommy stops respecting mankind and only respected money and those with money. And when you disrespect people, people will do whatever they can to bring you down. In the end you will pay for the pain you cause others. But out of these examples, the movie Belly is the only one in which the cycle was not complete. After Tommy agrees to work with the police to get out of serving time, he gets religious and decides to change his life before he self-destructs. He breaks the cycle because he realizes before it is too late that money is not important. And money does not bring true respect. You have to earn respect and power. And you have to respect others. The power that comes with the ‘fuck it’ attitude is very appealing because it is quick and easy to some degree. It is because it is an easy way to gain power (power through fear or money) it is addictive. It cause people to believe that they cannot be stopped and can do what ever it is that want. But this is a false sense of power. This false sense of power always leads to their self-destruction. You cannot treat people with disrespect and not suffer the consequences one day or another. But the power leads them not believing there are no consequences, and therefore they are not prepared when the consequences come.