yes, life is about choices. Often people "think" they are pursuing valuable goals when in fact they are not. Pursuing a virtuous life is highly rewarding in compelling ways. Pursuing the life of a murderer or thief is living as a second hander. You will always need others to show you your worth because you will not be creating worth on your own. Hitler could not build anything on his own. It was always about power and taking and manipulating. His self-worth came from his power-but what a sham that was. Sociopaths do not acknowledge that. Monsters do not acknowledge that. Their lives are hollow. Whether they recognize it, does not change the fact. I know where you are going with this. but where we will differ, is an Objectivist understands the value and worth comes from Man. You want to say his "soul" is given to him by a deity. A man creates his own value in the world. and he trades on that value by associating with others of value. Read the Virtue of Selfishness

people do contradictory things all the time. It is immoral to murder, money launder, steal, and counterfeit. These are not in your rational self-interest. For one, eventually you will be caught or killed most likely. The risk is extreme and the reward mixed

Huge fan of the novel. (Un-put-down-able). Not of the movies, they are too long, and they drag.

Because the Kennedys are real and the Corleones are figments of Puzzo's imagination.

Gail Wynand was my favorite character because you could see how he got sucked into it and how he gets these bits of awareness of what he's gotten sucked into and he tries to climb out.

He's unlikely Toohey who just seemed like pure emptiness on automatic pilot trying to suck the life out of people. Wynand wants to suck the life out of people, but we find out exactly why. As he's driving and sees the leaves changing and wonders how many more trips around the sun he'll get, he wonders if life should be all about being sure the he *does* indeed run things.

but not rational self interest

yes, why didn't the Kennedy's suffer at all for their Prohibition illicit acts? the Virginia still owner had much more to fear...

The appeal of the book and therefore the movie to me was how Vito was able to use his intelligence, cunning and wisdom to create a dynasty for his family in America while arriving as a poor immigrant. The crime context was just to keep the story interesting. Don Corleone was primarily a father, grandfather for an extended family of immigrants. His strengths enabled them even though some of them were weak to potentially achieve a life at a higher station. Had Michael had the same strength the family could have transitioned from the crime milieu and become a respectable rich American family like the Kennedys.

And completely different in others.
Personally, I disapprove of Hollywood 's fascination of with criminals, and I am disgusted by their continuing efforts to portray murdering criminals as tragic heros. It establishes all the wrong goals and condones the wrong actions. I agree with the author: it isn't about simple criminals. It's about subtle manipulation.

I watched the movies, but haven't read the book. The Corleones understood the use of force.

are you a big Godfather fan? I never read the book. I did watch the first two movies.

Don Corleone and Gail Wynand - pretty good comparison in some ways