Akkam’s Razor

Many years ago, a former boss, "Tee", told me "It takes a brave man to live outside the law" in response to something I had either done or said (I was usually a little to quick with my tongue and had little patience for workplace politics).  It has always puzzled me, but I never asked him what he had meant by it.

Just now, while sitting here, I Googled it and landed on this page from Lew Rockwell by Craig Russell on the Godfather, with this quote at the top of the page:

"To live outside the law, you must be honest." - Bob Dylan

Russell then elaborates on the nature of honesty and corruption:

Unlike the State, the Don is not corrupt – violent, yes, but not corrupt. While he buys politicians, he himself cannot be bought. Our indoctrination, however, tells us that, since he uses violence, he is therefore an evil man. But he is not. He’s just a man who has refused to yield to the State, among other things, its desired monopoly on violence, which is the cornerstone of the State’s power. And he uses this violence with restraint. Yes, he persuaded the bandleader who had signed his godson to a personal services contract to release him by making him "an offer he couldn’t refuse" by threatening his life: "He assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on that contract." But don’t forget that he had been there the day before offering ten times the money that he later did, and the bandleader unreasonably refused. The same thing happens with the movie director. The Don first offers friendship and to do him some specific services, but the director refuses reason, and wakes up with a horse’s head in his bed. What’s the difference between what the Don does in these instances and what the State would do if these men had been sued in court, except that the Don’s approach is more direct and more honest?

I still don’t know what he meant, but I’m flattered by the comparison.