Heisenberg VS Rubinshtein -- Who is the Better Mastermind
Updated: Feb 19
Walter White, nicknamed "Heisenberg," is an iconic character from the Breaking Bad TV series. A criminal business owner who formerly was a chemistry teacher and a former founder of a pill-producing company. After he realized he had severe cancer, something within him began to change. The unsatisfied chemistry teacher, undermined by everyone, who worked two jobs, slowly became someone else: The very person he wanted to be. His ideal self. That ideal self was Heisenberg.
Compared to other people, the pre-Heisenberg Walter White was not as relevant, and this hurt his self-estimation greatly. He did not like being a high school teacher, as well as working at some car wash store. No. He wanted to be more. He wanted to be more powerful, as he was power-hungry, but never seized the potential within him to gain power. Power in the form of money, renown, and recognition in the criminal underworld of the South West U.S..
It was very hard to trust him because he was a pathological liar who manipulated everyone around him. Even his own family failed to trust him, because he was never trustworthy. And when you constantly lie to everyone around you, you greatly decrease their psychological safety with you, as well as their loyalty to you.
How can someone be credible when they lie, even to their own employees and business partners? His partner-in-crime, Jesse Pinkman, was nothing more than a pawn to him. And as such he had no problem treating him like garbage, as long as it did not harm his Heisenberg Empire.
When you constantly lie, and your lies are detected and recognized, your selfish, morally depraved nature is exposed as well. Thus, Mr. White made sure to distinguish himself from his criminal persona. It is quite difficult to survive as a criminal, so you may need to constantly deceive others to not blow your cover. However, White has proven to be a poor liar.
As such, his eventual failure to separate his two personas, due to a very tiny mishap, made him a victim of the DEA. And, his brother-in-law, Hank, was the one who figured it out.
Ironically, the merciless Heisenberg still had compassion for his family. He didn't want Hank dead. He still believed in his family, somehow, despite his family not wanting him or his dirty money. Hank died regardless by White's soon-to-be successors, whom he left his empire after he decided to retire.
Heisenberg wasn't a genius. He was dumber than we may think. That tiny mishap that exposed White as Heisenberg essentially ruined everything in his plans. If he wasn't careless, in the long run, Hank wouldn't be killed, his successors wouldn't betray him, and he wouldn't have to kill them by his last night of being alive. Have you spotted this fatal flaw? The fatal flaw of having as W. W., over some book.
Yes, White had his initials revealed for Hank's eyes unintentionally. Hank took it and simply made the connection, based on the evidence he gathered thus far. It was such a silly mistake. A preventable mistake.
By the way, Heisenberg lied about something very severe: He said that he was doing all of this for his family. By the end of the episode, he revealed to his wife, Skyler, that he did it all for himself. That he enjoyed the power. That it was fun.
His son refused to receive all the riches his provider-father has collected for him because the son was far more moral than him. Okay? In fact his son hated him so much, that his final words to him were: "Just die."
And that, dear readers, is the fatal flaw of being morally depraved. Because morality exists on a spectrum. Making moral choices in life will get you respect and admiration. Disregard morality completely in favor of egoistical hedonism, and you will become like Heisenberg: A depraved criminal who just wanted to have a power trip before he died.
Yes, Carpe Diem. "Seize the moment." Heisenberg did just that. He was about to die, so he threw away his morality, because morality is a restraint. Morality limits your actions. White wanted to experience relevance and authority at the cost of everything else that is humane. It got him dead, alone, and hated by everyone who knew him.
He was in no way a good person, not even to his own wife and kids. He just wanted to compensate for being undermined so much by the world.
That is not how you gain relevance effectively. You gain relevance effectively by building trust, by being at least somewhat ethical, and by leaving a legacy for others. Otherwise, you will just live for yourself and your own fantasies, and you might do so at the expense of others.
I am a moral disciplinarian of myself. I know who I am and what I am capable of doing. Deep inside, I know. Know more than any of you. It is one of the prices of being highly intelligent and a public figure. I have no desire to misuse what I am trying to be; What I am becoming.
I am not fond of being compared to Heisenberg. His empire was just a megalomaniac fantasy, incarnated in the reality outside of White's head. My empire is far nobler than that. His empire was built on the addictive hedonism of his ingenious meth drug, which was a very pure product and thus a superior one. A product that was made for long-term addiction.
My article empire is built on providing value and worth. Value and worth that are more than just money, unlike the megalomaniac tyrant who just wanted to have some fun before his inevitable demise.
And he didn't care for successors, either. He murdered them because they stole some of his money. And he didn't care what his own son, Flynn, would do with his money. Because he didn't care for him, nor for his future.
I am not Heisenberg, I am Rubinshtein. Walter White is Heisenberg. I killed my former self, Tom, to become Tomasio. I do not hide behind false identities. Tomasio is my offical name, changed and paid by yours truly.
Because I, unlike him, care for other human beings and choose to be moral. And I have successors in mind because I refuse to live for myself.
In this battle of personalities, mine is the superior one. Superior by the fact that I refuse to be purely egoistic. And I'm trying not to make foolish mistakes. At least I'm trying, honestly.
I think logic compels some of you to withdraw from your comparison of our two beings. Correct?
And I learn from the mistakes of others, as I deserve. As I deserve for myself, and for you.
I am not a drug baron, I am an article baron. I supply you with insight, not toxic garbage. I want to contribute, and not feed on your weaknesses. Fortunately it isn't as addictive to read my articles as it is to be high.
