Negan is about to cause his own demise
it might not look like that from our last video
which discuss how effective his rule-based brutality was for controlling people
but he neglected one critical piece which is going to be his undoing
and in this video we're going to cover how Negan is likely to meet his end.
The inspiration for this video comes from CGP Grey's recent video
Rules for Rulers and of course the book that is based on, The Dictators Handbook,
both are definitely worth checking out
especially since I'm going to be repeating some of the main points here —
of course, spoilers for season 7 of The Walking Dead coming.
Now, the first two rules for rulers go hand-in-hand —
get the key supporters on your side by controlling and distributing the treasure
which Negan does excellently.
You don't want that.
I said have your shit and half is what I say it is.
Taxes in Negan's world are extremely high.
At least fifty percent of what you have depending on how he's feeling
and he spend it wisely by lavishing all those goods
on the select few who make up his inner circle.
That way, he'sable to buy their loyalty
and encourage them to treat other people like animals
because, well, it's worth it for the lifestyle that Negan can provide.
You work for me, you get yourself a brand new pair of shoes
and you live like a king.
This works so well for Negan because he has a very good eye
for spotting keys to power — that is,
individuals whose compliance is critical if he wants to control the masses.
Now, in real life, you can spot the keys or a leader of group in a few ways.
First off, notice who people literally follow
when that person walks in a certain direction.
Next off, notice who people ask questions of when they need to make a decision.
We're doing this?
No.
And of course, who do people actually listen to when there are disagreements.
We need to move now.
No one is going anywhere.
It's obvious to Negan that Rick is a key supporter
which is why Negan spends an extra amount of time breaking him down
and not killing him.
If Negan can control Rick, then the entire group falls in line because
Negan can't personally hope to control every single member of Rick's community
but if Rick can do that job for him, then he has nothing to worry about
which is exactly what happens when Negan threatens Olivia.
How are we gonna get out of this Rick?
There is no way out of this.
Let me put this to all of you as clearly as I can.
I'm not in charge anymore.
Negan is.
Negan was able to lock in Rick's compliance by holding the lives of his loved ones
hostage and he spent a good amount of time finding the exact right
angle to control the key supporters all around him.
Most of them, like Simon, are easy enough to buy with favors.
So the first two rules for rulers: control the keys and distribute the treasure —
Negan gets an A and if you don't know what those rules are,
again, I'll link to the video the Rules for Rulers in the description,
but the third rule is to minimize key supporters.
After all, there's only so much treasure to go around
and as far as we can tell, Negan does an excellent job.
First off, he removes guns from the communities that oppose him
making their support less critical.
This whole thing reminds me
that you have a lot of guns.
There's all the guns you took from my outpost when you wasted all my people
with the shit-ton of your own guns and I'm betting there's even more
which adds up to an absolute ass-load of guns
and as this little emotional outburst has made crystal clear,
I can't allow that.
And when given a choice of who to kill in the group,
he picked the most stubborn resistor he could spot in the group.
Again, from body language which is something we talked about
in the first video on Negan.
Huh.
But even with the key supporters on his side
and the people he is oppressing with limited options, the fact remains —
most people do not want Negan or any dictator to be in charge.
They just don't have the guns or the guts to do anything about it right now
but history shows us that there is one primary thing that can give
disenfranchised masses the ability to bring down a dictator.
Any guesses?
That thing is basically the First Amendment of the United States of America,
freedom of association,
because when people from different groups band together to air
their grievances, the risk of rebellion grows.
That's why savvy real-life rulers are so quick to disperse a crowd.
It's why Twitter was so important to the Arab Spring.
If people can communicate with others
especially others outside of their immediate group,
then dictators tend to remain in power.
But when they can communicate, the risk of that rebellion rises
which is why it is totally self-defeating that Negan empowers the groups
he controls to travel.
In fact, he demands it of them.
Now what you got to do is get over that tall wall of yours
and try harder out there — earn for me.
So Negan is sending people on missions
that are likely to end with groups that he is oppressing meeting one another.
Plus, he keeps no account of where members of individual groups are.
Sasha and Maggie disappear and nobody follows up
except to say that Maggie is dead.
In addition, other members of Rick's group have made contact
with other groups disgruntled with Negan as well —
there's Maggie who is not dead at Hilltop,
Morgan at the kingdom,
Tara and those amazon ladies —
obviously, Negan can't know about all these individuals
but spot checks and roll call's
would go a long way towards reducing the risk of rebellion
as with territorial boundaries on where each group can scavenge.
But instead, he gives them vehicles and tells them to go wherever they want.
I'm gonna leave you a truck —
keep it, use it to cart all the crap you're going to find me.
This is Negan's biggest mistake.
He's allowing different groups of people who do not like him
to meet and discuss in private
and that's going to be his downfall.
But of course, according to The Rules for Rulers,
even the most organized of protests will have a hard time bringing down a tyrant
unless there is betrayal on the inside.
In most crews in the real world,
the army simply allows it to happen because they're not being paid
like in Egypt with Mubarak.
This is why Negan takes good care of his generals
and they seem to be unfailingly loyal to him
with the exception of one — Dwight.
Now, Negan couldn't know that Dwight killed his friend
instead of bringing him back to suffer Negan's punishment
but Negan did catch the one tell that Dwight might not be on board
with everything Negan is doing
and that tell was not accepting the treasure.
...but I'm gonna pass and I'm cool.
Huh.
Are you cool though, Dwight?
I mean I just said that it was happier with the pussy bar
and Dwight eats for free
and you're telling me, "No."
Is that cool?
When generals seem to be uninterested by the treasure
that their dictator offers, be wary.
It means that they aren't being offered what they truly want and
what would truly buy their loyalty
and if people close to the top aren't dependent on the dictator,
well, they might just try to replace him with someone who they prefer.
So expect Dwight to betray Negan and expect the various bands
to come together to fight him and, because it's TV,
expect it to happen right when things look the most dire.
There will also probably be an appearance
from Shiva the tiger because why the heck not?
I hope that you guys have enjoyed all that.
Typically, we focus more on the specific charisma of individuals
as you can see in our prior video on Negan
but I just really thought the CGP Grey video was very interesting —
we've linked to it below and it got me thinking.
So I wanted to play around with applying it to the dynamic
in The Walking Dead.
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We actually have a new animated style video that I'm very excited about
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I'm actually planning on releasing two different styles of animation
and letting you guys vote to see which one we should stick with in the
future so look for that at the end of this week or early next year.
Either way, I hope that you've enjoyed this video
and I'll see you in the next one.