Recently, I saw the movie 21 in theatres. It is about a very intelligent MIT student who gets involved with a group of card counters. That is, gamblers who know how to cheat the system in blackjack. Every weekend they go to Vegas. With a professor as their mentor, they create secret identities and use their techniques to win thousands of dollars gambling. After each night, they split the cut between the 5 members of the team.
The main character only gets involved to win enough money to pay for med school after he graduates MIT. Eventually, he makes all the money he needs, but still continues to play even after he said he would stop. His ego takes over, and he forgets about the rest of the team. His cockiness came from being the best one and knowing that he could make as much money as he wanted. This eventually led to his demise, though. He stops using the card counting techniques and strictly gambles his money, losing almost all of it. His team members are furious, and the professor steals back all the money he made to pay for how much was lost in that night. Again, he is stuck with no money for med school and now no way to regain his reputation at MIT.
I believe that this movie has a strong connection to the war in Iraq. Although I am not the most informed on our situation, I know it has something to do with oil, since the prices are getting out of hand in America. Just like the main character in the movie, we wanted to be in control. America became greedy for oil, just like he became greedy for the money. Should we have found another way to get cheap oil, this war may not have started; the same way that the guy should have found a more honest way to make money instead of gambling for it. Basically, we set ourselves up for failure since now we are fighting a war that only started to benefit us but didn’t turn out the way we planned.
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