by 50 Cent
Contemplating sublime time has innumerable positive effects—it makes us feel a sense of urgency to get things done now, gives us a better grasp of what really matters, and instills a heightened appreciation of the passage of time, the poignancy and beauty of all things that fade away.
THE SENSE OF AWE
We are creatures that live in language. Everything we think and feel is framed by words—which never really quite express reality. They are merely symbols. Throughout history, people have had all kinds of unique experiences in which they witness something that exceeds the capacity to express it in words, and this elicits a feeling of awe. In 1915, the great explorer Ernest Shackleton found himself and his crew marooned on an ice floe near the continent of Antarctica. For months they floated in this desolate landscape, before managing to rescue themselves later the following year. During the time on the floe, Shackleton felt as if he were visiting the planet before humans had arrived on the scene—seeing something unchanged for millions of years—and despite the threat of death this scene represented, he felt oddly exhilarated.
In the 1960s the neurologist Oliver Sacks worked on patients who had been in a coma since the 1920s, victims of the sleeping-sickness epidemic of the time. Thanks to a new drug, they were awakened from this coma and he recorded their thoughts. He realized that they viewed reality in a much different way than anyone else did, which made him wonder about our own perception of the world—perhaps we see only a part of what is happening around us because our mental powers are determined by habits and conventions. There could be a reality we are missing. During such meditations he slipped into a sense of the Sublime.
In the 1570s, a Huguenot pastor named Jean de Léry was one of the first Westerners to live among the Brazilian tribes in the Bay of Rio. He observed all kinds of rituals that frightened him in their barbarity, but then one evening he heard tribesmen singing in a way that was so strange and unearthly, he was overwhelmed with a sudden sense of awe. “I stood there transported with delight,” he later wrote. “Whenever I remember it, my heart trembles, and it seems their voices are still in my ears.”
This sense of awe can be elicited by something vast or strange—endless landscapes (the sea or the desert), monuments from the distant past (the pyramids of Egypt), the unfamiliar customs of people in a foreign land. It can also be sparked by things in everyday life—for instance, focusing on the dizzying variety of animal and plant life around us that took millions of years to evolve into its present form. (The philosopher Immanuel Kant, who wrote about the Sublime, felt it in holding a swallow in his hands and gazing into its eye, feeling a strange connection between the two of them.) It can be created by particular exercises in thinking. Imagine, for example, that you had always been blind and were suddenly granted sight. Everything you saw around you would seem strange and new—the freakish form of trees, the garishness of the color green. Or try imagining the earth in its actual smallness, a speck in vast space. The Sublime on this level is merely a way of looking at things in their actual strangeness. This frees you from the prison of language and routine, this artificial world we live in. Experiencing this awe on any scale is like a sudden blast of reality—therapeutic and inspiring.
THE SENSE OF THE OCEANIC, THE CONNECTION TO ALL LIFE
In not confronting our mortality, we tend to entertain certain illusions about death. We believe that some deaths are more important or meaningful than others—that of a celebrity or prominent politician, for instance. We feel that some deaths are more tragic, coming too early or from some accident. The truth, however, is that death makes no such discriminations. It is the ultimate equalizer. It strikes rich and poor alike. For everyone, it seems to come too early and can be experienced as tragic. Absorbing this reality should have a positive effect upon us all. We share the same fate with everyone; we all deserve the same degree of compassion. It is what ultimately links all of us together, and when we look at the people around us we should see their mortality as well.
This can be extended further and further, into the Sublime—death is what links us to all living creatures as well. One organism must die so another can live. It is an endless process that we are a part of. This is what is known as an oceanic feeling—the sensation that we are not separated from the outside world but that we are part of life in all its forms. Feeling this at moments inspires an ecstatic reaction, the very opposite of a morbid reflection on death.
Reversal of Perspective
In our normal perspective we see death as something diametrically opposed to life, a separate event that ends our days. As such, it is a thought that we must dread, avoid, and repress. But this is false, an idea that is actually born out of our fear. Life and death are inextricably intertwined, not separate; the one cannot exist without the other. From the moment we are born we carry our death within ourselves as a continual possibility. If we try to avoid or repress the thought, keep death on the outside, we are cutting ourselves off from life as well. If we are afraid of death, then we are afraid of life. We must turn this perspective around and face reality from within, finding a way to accept and embrace death as part of being alive. Only from such a position can we begin to overcome the fear of our mortality, and then all of the smaller fears that plague our lives.
WHEN I NEARLY DIED IT MADE ME THINK—THIS CAN HAPPEN AGAIN ANY SECOND. I BETTER HURRY AND DO WHAT I WANT. I STARTED TO LIVE LIKE I NEVER LIVED BEFORE. WHEN THE FEAR OF DEATH IS GONE, THEN NOTHING CAN BOTHER YOU AND NOBODY CAN STOP YOU.
—50 Cent
Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to my NANA, a woman of strength, power, and great determination. She instilled in me knowledge. There is no knowledge that is not Power.
—50 Cent
First and foremost, my thanks go to Anna Biller for her loving support, her deft editing of The 50th Law, and her other innumerable contributions to the book.
The 50th Law owes its existence to Marc Gerald, Fifty’s literary agent. He brought Fifty and me together in the first place and skillfully guided the project from start to finish. I must also thank my agent, Michael Carlisle, at InkWell Management, for his equally invaluable contributions; his assistant at Inkwell, Ethan Bassoff; and Robert Miller, publisher extraordinaire of HarperStudio, who played such an important role in shaping the concept of the book. Also at HarperStudio I would like to thank Debbie Stier, Sarah Burningham, Katie Salisbury, Kim Lewis, and Nikki Cutler; and for their work on the design of the book, Leah Carslon-Stanisic and Mary Schuck.
I would like to thank Ryan Holiday for his research assistance; Dov Charney for his support and inspiration; my good friend Lamont Jones for our many discussions on the subject; and Jeffrey Beneker, assistant professor in the incomparable Classics department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, for his scholarly advice.
On Fifty’s side, his management group, Violator, gave me tremendous support on the project. For this I must thank first and foremost Chris Lighty, CEO of Violator and the man behind the throne. Also giving generously of their time were Theo Sedlmayr, Fifty’s attorney and business manager; Laurie Dobbins, president of Violator; Barry Williams, brand manager; Anthony Butler (better known as AB); Bubba; and Hov. Special mention as well goes to Joey P (co-founder of Brand Asset Digital) and to Nikki Martin, president of G-Unit Records, for her invaluable insights on Fifty from his earliest days in the business.
I would like to thank as well Tony Yayo, Busta Rhymes, Paul Rosenberg (president of Shady Records and Eminem’s manager), the novelist Nikki Turner, Quincy Jones III, and Kevin and Tiffany Chiles over at DonDiva.
I would like to give special mention to George “June” Bishop for giving me the Southside tour and helping me understand the rich world of hustling.
Finally, for their immeasurable support during the writing of the book, I would like to thank my mother, Laurette; my sister, Leslie; and, as always, my cat, Brutus.
—Robert Greene
ALSO BY 50 CENT
50 X 50: 50 Cent in His Ow
n Words
From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens
ALSO BY ROBERT GREENE
The Art of Seduction
The 33 Strategies of War
The 48 Laws of Power
Copyright
THE 50TH LAW. Copyright © 2009 by G-Unit Books, Inc., and Robert Greene. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition July 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-195911-0
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Acknowledgments
Other Books by 50 Cent and Robert Greene
Copyright
About the Publisher
