So, last night, I watched a movie titled Dead Man’s Wire. It’s based on a true-life story about a kidnapping and hostage situation. The kidnapper was a man named Tony Kiritsi, who abducted another man named Richard Hall, all because Hall was the President of a mortgage bank that Tony was working with, and he believed that they had made decisions that were against his interest, thereby causing him to incur losses that were too grave to ignore.
And for that, he abducted him, reported it to the police, and his demands were for his losses to be paid back to him and also for a formal apology from the owner of the bank, who also happened to be Richard’s father. The promise was that if he got them, among other things, he’d release Richard, and life would go on.
Something happened in the movie that inspired me to make this post. You see, when Tony eventually got to speak to Richard’s father, trying to get him to apologize, the man refused to apologize. For him, issuing an apology was as good as pleading guilty to the claims that Tony was making, and he wasn’t going to be the one who would do that. It didn’t matter that Richard was held at gunpoint; it sure as hell didn’t matter that Tony was erratic as hell and the gun could go off at any point. He simply wasn’t going to do it.
But then, the most chilling thing about it? The father was ready to accept his son's death. He was ready to sacrifice his son if it meant that he wouldn’t apologize, and also that Tony would lose his shield, and thus the police would be able to take him on.
Of course, I don’t know for sure how exactly it went down, I only know what was shown in the movie. But then, I have to wonder, what exactly will I call this? Is it pride? I know that there are people like that in real life. Those who will never apologize, they feel like doing so will take some flesh off their bodies. People are always so skeptical about admitting they were wrong. They’d rather remain locked in their wrong assumptions, burning in it, than admit they were wrong and get things right.
Sometimes it’s not even about the apology, it’s just about admitting you made a mistake. Not many people can do that. This is why sometimes when you point out a mistake that someone made, they’d attack you. They won’t hit you with facts or try to disprove your theory that they’re wrong. No, they’ll instead try to attack your standing, wanting to know what gives you the right to think that you can declare them wrong.
Yeah, to a large extent, this is pride, and many people will be willing to sacrifice a lot for pride. People learn to say sorry, just for peace to reign. But then, we also know that sometimes, it makes things worse for you because people will believe you’re guilty. Which is why you have to be careful how you use it, especially when you’re not responsible for the situation. But then, in the situation when a life is hanging in the balance on your capacity to apologize and admit a wrongdoing, will you be making that apology? Will you be willing to admit you did something wrong even though you know you’re innocent? Will you be willing to do that just to save a life?
This is a big ask, I guess, but then, we can never really know for sure until we’re in the situation. However, we look at it, these acts always have backlash, and people may be looking at that. And maybe, that’s the justification people give. Well, I guess it is what it is. People will always keep doing what they believe is best for them. Even at the expense of family.
That’s just too bad.
