![]() ![]() Why would he give up all this power because his confidant in the Pentagon can’t handle the pressure? Hollister is respected and beloved, this crate between them is destined for a military museum exhibit dedicated to his greatness. ![]() Despite ripping off the government, he’s too proud to run, and too sure of his skills and reputation to allow a sniveling colonel to run and risk him spilling the beans when he gets the chance. In other words, the good general is stealing from the military and the colonel is telling him they have to flee and hide to avoid prosecution.Īnd this is where we get a glimpse of Hollister’s critical flaw: Pride. ![]() Dutton’s higher-ups are finally looking into the vast amounts of money being spent on military contracts which will implicate Hollister as he was perpetually upcharging contracts despite lowball starting bids. Hollister runs a contracting business while Dutton accepts bids. Hollister is about to cap Colonel Roger Dutton.ĭutton and Hollister have spent the years since Hollister’s triumphant days as a war hero profiting off military contracts. The mystery is not whether or not the rich asshole is guilty (they are so guilty and usually of multiple things) but how the working class Lt Columbo navigates their web of bullshit. Columbo always bucked this mystery novel tradition and showed you the murderer upfront. Many crime dramas post Columbo tend to show you details of how the murder or other offense happens without immediately revealing whodunit. Sometimes a simple, direct explanation of a problem stands the test of time. Join me as I dig too deeply into an old crime drama you’ve probably never seen and explain why we should use elements of pop culture history to better understand our world, even when we think they might be too old to apply. If it was so cut and dry in the ‘70s, why the hell did no one listen to Columbo? Any recently deceased senators come to mind? Both gaslighting and forgiving people because they served in the military continue to disrupt political and even cultural conversations to this day. Dead Weight is a sharp and surprisingly insightful look at this behavior from 1971 that could serve as a relevant example when communicating just how insidious gaslighting is and how easily it proliferates.īut Dead Weight also tackles the thorny subject of American hero worship and why military accolade should not excuse terrible choices and behavior but so often do. In Helen’s world, she’s subjected to this kind of abuse long before the episode begins but is directly targeted by General Hollister to further the psychological manipulation. Its effect is to gradually undermine the victim’s confidence in his own ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or reality from appearance, thereby rendering him pathologically dependent on the gaslighter in his thinking or feelings. Gaslighting, an elaborate and insidious technique of deception and psychological manipulation, usually practiced by a single deceiver, or “gaslighter,” on a single victim over an extended period. For my purposes, this is definition of gaslighting (courtesy of the Encyclopædia Britannica): While we talk about it, it’s likely that some may not know how to identify it, or haven’t bothered to ascertain the working definition after seeing it tossed around the Internet. We talk about gaslighting a lot these days, what with all the willful misdirection, outright lying, and utter rejection of reality happening in our daily news cycle. ![]() Rather than believe that she’s telling the truth, the entire world (save Columbo) proceeds to gaslight her until she stops believing what she saw. The only trouble is that she witnesses it from the water and the murder happens inside that palatial oceanfront property owned by legendary war hero Major General Martin J. Helen Stuart (the head you see in the image above) is spending the morning at the marina with her mother when she witnesses a murder. Since it is Falk’s birthday I decided a marathon was in order, which got me thinking about the episode Dead Weight and how relevant it is today. We needed the reassurance and satisfaction that truly horrible people got what they deserved and to me it’s always better to punch up than to punch down, and Columbo was firmly focused skyward. It was as unrealistic in the ‘70s as it is now, that the rich would actually face punishment but that’s all part of why Columbo slipped in and out of pop culture from the late ‘60s right up to the early 2000s. If you’re unfamiliar with who he is, you’re more likely to recognize him as Lieutenant Columbo of the Los Angeles Police Department, an unassuming and seemingly disorganized plainclothes detective who specializes in holding the wealthiest people in L.A. Yesterday (September 16th) was Peter Falk’s birthday. ![]()
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