by B. » Tue May 25, 2021 9:38 pm
The US stopped making most professions at some point, otherwise I bet some of these guys would have been candidates for membership.
There were still a handful made in the 1950s but after that you really don't see professionals getting made in US families. It's in the US that we first see "mafioso" become a profession unto itself.
Allegra doesn't only talk about the politicians, doctors, and noblemen who were made members, he also talks about the dizzying amount of members who were butchers, merchants, and in all kinds of normal trades. Few of these guys were "mafiosi" and nothing more, but mafiosi in addition to their occupation. It's not like the priesthood is a "front job" for a member who is a priest... he's a functioning priest but he has to reconcile that side of his life with the fact that he took a blood oath to a fundamentally corrupt organization and in some cases may have even been the capo/boss, if early Sicilian accounts are true.
You still see successful businessmen get made who have little to no criminal activity, but they are typically commercial businessmen and nothing like the teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers, politicians and others. Honestly guys like Rosatti and Staluppi who pose with George W. Bush are just as impressive to me as any lawyer or doctor from the old mafia, but the difference is they're commercial businessmen and that has a different feel compared to a doctor, lawyer, music teacher, etc.
The US stopped making most professions at some point, otherwise I bet some of these guys would have been candidates for membership.
There were still a handful made in the 1950s but after that you really don't see professionals getting made in US families. It's in the US that we first see "mafioso" become a profession unto itself.
Allegra doesn't only talk about the politicians, doctors, and noblemen who were made members, he also talks about the dizzying amount of members who were butchers, merchants, and in all kinds of normal trades. Few of these guys were "mafiosi" and nothing more, but mafiosi in addition to their occupation. It's not like the priesthood is a "front job" for a member who is a priest... he's a functioning priest but he has to reconcile that side of his life with the fact that he took a blood oath to a fundamentally corrupt organization and in some cases may have even been the capo/boss, if early Sicilian accounts are true.
You still see successful businessmen get made who have little to no criminal activity, but they are typically commercial businessmen and nothing like the teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers, politicians and others. Honestly guys like Rosatti and Staluppi who pose with George W. Bush are just as impressive to me as any lawyer or doctor from the old mafia, but the difference is they're commercial businessmen and that has a different feel compared to a doctor, lawyer, music teacher, etc.