Why Negan Is Doomed

Negan is about to cause his own demise. It might not look like that from our last video, which discussed how effective his rule based brutality was for controlling people. But he neglected one critical piece, which is going to be his undoing. And in this video, we're going to cover how Negan is likely to meet his end. The inspiration for this video comes from CGP Grey's recent video, Rules for Rulers, and of course, the book that it's based on, the Dictator's handbook. Both are definitely worth checking out, especially since I'm going to be repeating some of the main points here. Of course, spoilers for season seven of the Walking Dead coming now. The first two rules for rulers go hand in hand. Get the key supporters on your side by controlling and distributing the treasure, which Negan does excellently.

You don't want that. I said half your shit and half is what I say it is.

Taxes in Negan's world are extremely high. At least 50% of what you have, depending on how he's feeling. And he spends it wisely by lavishing all those goods on the select few who make up his inner circle. That way, he's able to buy their loyalty and encourage them to treat other people like animals because, well, it's worth it for the lifestyle that Negan can provide.

You work for me, you get yourself a brand new pair of shoes, and you live like a king.

This works so well for Negan because he has a very good eye for spotting keys to power, I.e. individuals whose compliance is critical if he wants to control the masses. Now, in real life, you can spot the keys or leader of a group in a few ways. First off, notice who people literally follow when that person walks in a certain direction. Next off, notice, who people ask questions of when they need to make a decision.

Are we doing this? No.

And of course, who do people actually listen to when there are disagreements?

True.

We need to move now.

No one is going anywhere.

It's obvious to Negan that Rick is a key supporter, which is why Negan spends an extra amount of time breaking him down and not killing him. If Negan can control Rick, then the entire group falls in line. Because Negan can't personally hope to control every single member of Rick's community. But if Rick can do that job for him, then he has nothing to worry about. Which is exactly what happens when Negan threatens Olivia.

How are we gonna get out of this, Rick? There is no way out of this. Let me put this to all of you as clearly as I can. I'm not in charge anymore. Negan is.

Negan was able to lock in Rick's compliance by holding the lives of his loved ones hostage. And he spent a good amount of time finding the exact right angle to control the key supporters all around him. Most of them, like Simon, are easy enough to buy or with favors. So the first two rules for rulers control the keys and distribute the treasure. Negan gets an A. And if you don't know what those rules are, again, I'll link to the video rules for rulers in the description. But the third rule is to minimize key supporters. After all, there's only so much treasure to go around. And as far as we can tell, Negan does an excellent job. First off, he removes guns from the communities that oppose him, making their support less critical.

This whole thing reminds me of that. You have a lot of guns. There's all the guns you took from my outpost when you wasted all my people with a ton of your own guns. And I'm betting there's even more, which adds up to an absolute ass load of guns. And as this little emotional outburst has made crystal clear, I can't allow that.

And when given a choice of who to kill in the group, he picked the most stubborn resister he could spot in the group. Again from body language, which is something we talked about in the first video on Negan.

Huh?

But even with the key supporters on his side and the people he is oppressing with limited options, the fact remains, most people do not want Negan or any dictator to be in charge. They just don't have the guns or the guts to do anything about it right now. But history shows us that there is one primary thing that can give disenfranchised masses the ability to bring down any a dictator. Any guesses? That thing is basically the first amendment of the United States of America. Freedom of association. Because when people from different groups band together to air their grievances, the risk of rebellion grows. That's why savvy real life rulers are so quick to disperse a crowd. It's why Twitter was so important to the Arab Spring. If people can't communicate with others, especially others outside of their immediate group, then dictators tend to remain in power. But when they can communicate, the risk of that rebellion rises. Which is why it is totally self defeating that Negan empowers the groups he controls to travel. In fact, he demands it of them.

Now what you gotta do is get over that tall wall of yours and try harder out there. Earn from me.

So Negan is sending people on missions that are Likely to end with groups that he is oppressing meeting one another. Plus, he keeps no account of where members of individual groups are. Sasha and Maggie disappear, and nobody follows up except to say that Maggie is de. In addition, other members of Rick's group have made contact with other groups disgruntled with Negan as well. There's Maggie, who is not dead, at Hilltop, Morgan at the Kingdom, Tara, and those Amazon ladies. Obviously, Negan can't know about all these individuals, but spot checks and role calls would go a long way towards reducing the risk of rebellion, as would territorial boundaries on where each group can scavenge. But instead, he gives them vehicles and tells them to go wherever they want.

Leave you a truck. Keep it. Use it to cart all the crap you're going to find me.

This is Negan's biggest mistake. He's allowing different groups of people who do not like him to meet and discuss in private, and that's going to be his downfall. But of course, according to the rules for rulers, even the most organized of protests will have a hard time bringing down a tyrant unless there is betrayal on the inside. In most coups in the real world, the army simply allows it to happen because they're not being paid like in Egypt or with Mubarak. This is why Negan takes good care of his generals, and they seem to be unfailingly loyal to him, with the exception of one. Dwight. Now, Negan couldn't know that Dwight killed his friend instead of bringing him back to suffer Negan's punishment. But Negan did catch the one tell that Dwight might not be on board with everything Negan is doing, and that tell was not accepting the treasure.

But I'm gonna pass. I'm cool. Huh? Are you cool, though, Dwight? I mean, I just said that it was happy hour at the Pussy bar, and Dwight eats for free, and you're telling me no. Is that cool?

When generals seem to be uninterested by the treasure that their dictator offers, be wary. It means that they aren't being offered what they truly want. What would truly buy the their loyalty. And if people close to the top aren't dependent on the dictator, well, they might just try to replace him with someone who they prefer. So expect Dwight to betray Negan. Expect the various bands to come together to fight him. And because it's tv, expect it to happen right when things look the most dire. There will also probably be an appearance from Shiva the Tiger, because why the heck not? I hope that you guys have enjoyed all that. Typically, we focus more on the specific charisma of individuals, as you can see in our prior video on Negan, but I just really thought that CGP Grey's video was very interesting. We linked to it below and it got me thinking, so I wanted to play around with applying it to the dynamic in the Walking Dead. Now if you want to see more videos every single week like this, make sure to click the button to subscribe to the channel. We actually have a new animated style video that I'm very excited about and should be coming out next week. You might not recognize it on your feed. If you want subscribe, so definitely do so. I'm actually planning on releasing two different styles of animation and letting you guys vote to see which one we stick with in the future. So look for that at the end of this week or early next. Either way, I hope that you enjoyed this video and I'll see you in the next one.