Ep.17 Omerta

Chicken Mind Nuggets.

Hosted by Wifey

Chickenmindnuggets.com

[email protected]

@mindchicken

References for this episode

https://the-mafia.weebly.com/omerta.html

Introduction music graciously provided by

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Thinking Music" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Show script: (may differ slightly from spoken word)

*This episode is dedicated to my brother Arjun. A fellow mafia story enthusiast and podcaster, he has been on this podcast journey with me from the beginning and has shown nothing but love and incomparable friendship over these years. He is one of the people who I get excited about laughing with, can understand inner struggles with, can share stories/conspiracies/ideas/books/and jokes with, and I always learn something new and valuable. Arjun brother...you mean a lot to me...and although this episode is about omerta, I'm not silent on the world knowing you are an amazing person and friend.

Please check out Arjun's podcast Deep Into History for a historical journey that will transform the way you look at what you thought you knew :)

Shhhhhh........

Silence is so weird. It’s exactly what we want and what we don’t want. Our kids are loud and we tell them to shut up so we can have quiet, but we bury ourselves in anything that will distract us from being silent and hearing what’s in our head. It’s like we want selective silence, silence that will take over the distracting sounds in our area, but NOT the silence that allows us to think. If the dog acting in its own nature barks, we tell it to shut up. If the blender is loud in the morning and we don’t want to wake the husband we tell it, “STOP! SHH!!!! STOPP!” as if the blender will hear us lol. Not that I’ve done that.... But, when we have that silence we want, we are uncomfortable and reach for our phone or for music. You WANT to sit on the porch and enjoy your cup of tea, but you have to have something else there so you can’t hear your mind. Can you have selective silence and enjoy your time when you have silence? It seems that most people want the silence they put distractions in front of, which is the silence of the mind. It would be great to meditate with no distractions and be like a Zen monk with nothing on our mind, but it’s so hard. It’s hard for a lot of reasons, but one of them is because you don’t practice omerta. Omerta is the mafia code of silence which prevents members from talking about the mafia outside of the family. It’s a blood oath taken seriously with your life. Breaking omerta means you are a dead man walking. It’s an honor code between family members which states that business can be taken care of within the family, and a spectacle doesn’t need to be made out of family business. If business is to be displayed, it is for a reason, a message, like when John Gotti had Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti killed outside Sparks Steakhouse in New York City. There have been people who have broken it throughout mafia history including Sammy Gravano, Joe Valachi, and Tommaso Buscetta, but their cooperation with law enforcement left a streak on mafia trust and provided valuable insight to law enforcement. When you think about what you say outside of your own mind, or to other people, do you regulate your speech according to the listening party? Of course, you do. You don’t speak to your coworkers the same way you speak to your dog. Good boy, you did this month’s quarterly reports, who wants a treat? But I bet you have a hard time practicing self omerta in your head. This involves understanding the language you hear and the processes you have about how you interpret actions and which ones to remain silent about. Self omerta, is not flipping off the jerk who cut you off then slowed down in front of you. Mental omerta, is continuous practice of, “you do you,” and letting people make their own karma while you stay in your own lane and choose to do good so your bad business doesn’t end up outside of your scope. Daily omerta, is enjoying the moments of silence you are in tune to throughout your day. Silence should be a protected investment, an oath to yourself and to the people around you that practicing silence gives you the space to sort out the crazy in your head so you can come back to the family table with a rational human thought process and pattern of speech rather than an emotional ego-protective reaction which draws out the worst in people. I used to spend a day in silence about once a month, and that was the happiest day of the month each time I think back about when I did it. The best of the best days is when I spent it physically and verbally alone. I could hear so much, and I had to turn around in my head to face my mind and say, “I’m here to listen, not to react. We have a code...