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Sunday, April 14, 2013

I've been getting into the "Dallas" reboot...

You know the series as it concludes it's second season on TNT is just getting better. During the course of the current season the iconic character JR Ewing was put to rest having been murdered. Before his untimely demise he puts together his "masterpiece" that now his family has to piece together to defeat their enemies. JR's demise was precipitated by actor Larry Hagman's death from cancer late last year.

Anyway I'm disappointed that I couldn't find an extended version of the scene above to embed so I'll post a link in the brackets [VIDEO]. This scene is from the original series and shows Jock Ewing, Bobby's father having to teach his youngest son a lesson about life & business. Bobby was upset some funds were taken from Ewing Oil without his knowlege and Jock has to tell him! Tell him that although Jock gave Bobby the power to run the family-owned oil business, however, power isn't given to you. Power is something you TAKE!

If that's not a life lesson, I have little idea what else is. On this blog I seek to write a lot about politics and you know this is a political lesson as much as it is a business lesson. Being a political science major in college and having dabbled in political theory there is certainly a work out there that describes this lesson.

You know perhaps Machiavelli is the political theorist who could describe this dynamic more than anyone else I have read. In fact the episode of the new Dallas series where they read JR's will & testament one of the things he gave to his family mainly his nephew Christopher Ewing was some of Machiavelli's works. My first thought was his book The Prince which I have read, however, Machiavelli has written more books that I have yet to run into so far.

So if you believe that this scene may echo Machiavelli, it's very interesting to see it play out in a TV drama! Also looking forward to the last two episodes of the current season.