The Myth And Reality Of The Cowboy - amazonia.fiocruz.br

The Myth And Reality Of The Cowboy Video

Cowboys Myth vs Fact

The Myth And Reality Of The Cowboy - would

The frontier myth or myth of the West is one of the influential myths in American culture. The frontier is the concept of a place that exists at the edge of a civilization, particularly during a period of expansion. The American frontier occurred throughout the 17th to 20th centuries as European Americans colonized and expanded across North America. This period of time became romanticized and idealized in literature and art to form a myth. Richard Slotkin , a prominent scholar on the subject, defines the myth of the frontier as "America as a wide-open land of unlimited opportunity for the strong, ambitious, self-reliant individual to thrust his way to the top. Turner claimed that at the frontier American pioneers were transformed by their interaction with Native Americans and the wilderness to become rugged individuals who prized their freedom and individualism. The Myth And Reality Of The Cowboy.

Who is a narco? The details may vary, but our mental image is usually very similar.

We picture a young man, working class, non-white, poorly educated, festooned in a cowboy hat or other flamboyant outfit. In this, the entertainment industry has done a brilliant job in re producing a stereotype.

Recent Books

My doctoral research focused on analysing the life stories of thirty-three men who worked in the drug trafficking industry in Mexico [1]. Their first-hand narratives of the everyday of the drug trade and their reflections on their own roles in it, debunk some of the common myths prevalent in movies and TV shows, as well as the discourses produced by governments.

In this article, I discuss why we must challenge these myths and turn our attention to the figures of power who really control and benefit from this global enterprise. At first glance the stereotypes about narcos may seem to have a grain of truth. This statistic is a selective analysis, however, only capturing the sociodemographics of individuals at the base of the drug trade hierarchy.

Navigation menu

What is crucial to highlight is that narcos are not only the producers, smugglers or sicarios we constantly see in the movies. This myth is the cornerstone of a wider fallacy: the idea that cartels are only run by regional drug lords, and that the profits are retained in countries such as Mexico or Colombia see Ferragut, Just click for source assumption, in turn, justifies intrusive and violent policies in order to win a war that cannot be won Woods, Because the most powerful kingpins operate in the shadows, protected by their invisibility. The drug trade is an international business and, as in any other multinational, there are multiple disciplines and hierarchies comprising the business model. More importantly, we have to bring to the fore the high-ranking narcos, including bankers and financiers, politicians, the military, policemen, economists, judges, and entrepreneurs, among others, who live and operate in the most important financial https://amazonia.fiocruz.br/scdp/blog/culture-and-selfaeesteem/the-fables-and-fairy-tales-with-human.php in the world Young and Woodiwiss, These individuals are positioned at the top of the hierarchy.

They are truly the most Anx drug kingpins. When I spoke to former narcos, they confirmed that the big bosses did Or resemble the stereotypes but were rather members of the power elite in Mexico and the United States. This perhaps does not come as a The Myth And Reality Of The Cowboy, but it is hardly reflected in policy that almost exclusively chases, attacks, and prosecutes low-ranking narcos at great human and financial cost.

Download & Read Online PDF Book For Free

When we acknowledge that most powerful actors and those who control the drug trade are not directly involved at the grassroot level, it becomes clear why these policies have also had a negligible effect on the drug trafficking enterprise. Such efforts would more efficiently disrupt the drug business, but would also challenge a status quo that is comfortable for many. The narco myth is thus a useful lie, serving to justify militarized and intrusive policies, and protect the political capital and financial rewards the system creates. The sooner that we, as society, start questioning oversimplified narratives of who narcos are, where they live, and what they do, the sooner the governments will have to adjust their ineffective policies and open the door to new, sustainable solutions.

Resources and References. Ferragut, S. BBC News Mundo. Vilalta, C.

This short article is through the archive of our partner.

Aguilar-Rivera, Las bases sociales del crimen organizado pp. Woods, N. Young, M. Trends Organ.]