Civil Society in the U.S. is Dead Man Walking

At the beginning of episode seven of the second season of the TV series “Breaking Bad,” a mariachi band sings a Mexican corrido, or narrative ballad, about the show’s antihero protagonist Walter White. In the song, called “Negra y Azul: The Ballad of Heisenberg,” the Mexican drug cartel has become aware of Walter’s methamphetamine manufacturing business and has initiated a plan to assassinate him. Among the lyrics are, “Ese compa ya está Muerto. Nomás no le han avisado,” roughly translated in the subtitles as “But that homie’s dead. He just doesn’t know it yet.”