[UA] The Masterless Man/The Wave Man/Japanese Mentality vs. American

[Nick Wedig]

>The reason the gunfighter resonates so well here is that in America we once
>had a soldier who lived to serve a master who truly died.  The rebel soldier
>after the collapse of the South and the loss of the civil war.  We had an
>individual who held nation above all else and that nation was defeated.  
>
>All romance aside, that figure holds the tragic quality of the wave man, and
>of the American Archtypes, it's the only one I can think of that really
>does.  I don't see the masterless man as being ascended and replaced by
>contract computer employees, or dot-com millionaires for a number of
>reasons, firstly, with the collapse of the dot-economy the computer prodigal
>is becoming way less of an issue.  Secondly, because, that dot-com
>millionaire being downsized or leaving to start their own company isn't
>tragic.  In America a job is just a job.  There are a million and one ways
>to make a living and you have to find another one.  

The way I see it, the archetype (in modern day, at least) would be embodied by people who believe in one set of ideals, but then find that the organization that is supposed to embody those ideals is full of corruption and doesn't really follow those ideals, leading to him fighting that organziation while following its ethical system.  The outlaws who take out crooked cops, and the like.

I'm not certain how that fits with your interpretations, but that was how I imagined it (drawn largely from fictional sources, albeit).

Mr. Teapot
part time rock star

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