Children’s shows and sports movies are going to need some tweaking in America going forward to reflect the values embraced here. The heroes aren’t the plucky underdogs banding together against a bully, using grit and determination to win a rigged game contrasted as the moral victors over cheaters, or doing the right thing no matter how difficult it is because what they’re fighting for is more important than hollow comforts and empty praise… the hero is whoever simply ends up on top at the end.
If the bully comes back after being taken down a peg with twenty friends and baseball bats he is now the hero. If the rival team dopes up, bribes the judges, and arranges for an accident to keep the underdogs from the game they are now the heroes. If the judges just pick a favourite because their kid was on the team they’re the heroes. If the hero sells out to the big corporation and throws the game betraying their friends, family, the orphanage in danger of being shut down, and the little baby Jesus that told them they believe in the hero they’re still the hero because they’re on top after the CEO takes them under their wing.
Winning is everything, even if your prize is the slow erosion of everything in your life that was worth having. There is no right or wrong as long as you’ve won.
Enjoy your despot. I’m certain the ghosts of quite a number of European monarchs, African warlords, communist dictators, and Saddam Hussein are feeling pretty damned smug and vindicated right about now along with Vladimir Putin and everyone ever designated as the bad guy in Call of Duty or Modern Warfare games.