Savages

35

There are, of course, some critics—and Ben is one of them—who will say that Ben can be Ben because Chon is Chon.

Ben acknowledges his own hypocrisy on this issue.

(He is nothing but self-aware and self-analytical. See:

Ben, parentage of.)

He and Chon even have a noun for it:

“Hydrocrisy.”

The hydrocrisy is obvious—Ben strives to be nonviolent and honest in a business that is violent and dishonest.

“But it doesn’t have to be,” Ben has argued.

“But it is,” Chon countered.

“But it shouldn’t be.”

“Okay, but so what?”

Well, so what is that Ben has taken 99 percent of the violence and dishonesty out of his business, but that other 1 percent is—

—where Chon comes in.

Ben doesn’t need to know what Ben doesn’t need to know.

“You’re the American public,” Chon tells him.

And Chon has ample experience with that.