Colin Sheridan: How long will the anger and revulsion last?

There is a scene in Godfather: Part II, where senator Pat Geary visits Michael Corleone, and outlines to him the mechanics of how he will allow the Corleones to operate their family business in Las Vegas. Geary, as corrupt as he is sneering and hostile, explains to Al Pacino’s Corleone how he sees the Sicilian families expansion west as a necessary but unwelcome evil; “I don’t like your type of people”, Geary tells him “I don’t like to see you come out to this clean country with your oily hair, dressed up in those silk suits, trying to pass yourself as decent Americans. I despise your masquerade, the dishonest way you pose yourself, yourself and your whole f**king family”.

Corleone, unbothered by Geary’s contempt for him, delivers a line in repost that is applicable to almost every societal issue since the time of Socrates.