Goodfellas : What most people secretly desire

The screen fades in on a dimly lit restaurant. Ice clinks in a glass. A laugh echoes — sharp, confident, a little too loud. For a moment, the room bends around the men at the table. They don’t just enter a space… they take possession of it. Like the world boxing heavyweight champion entering the arena. This is the spell films like Goodfellas cast on us.

Not because we admire the crime, but because we instinctively understand the psychology behind that life: the immediacy, the danger, the feeling of being plugged directly into the electric current of existence. It’s a world where consequences don’t exist — until they do, violently — and where the characters move with a mythic sense of destiny that everyday life rarely offers.

We know it’s wrong. We know it’s doomed. And yet something in us whispers: I understand why it felt so good.

This article isn’t about glorifying that world. It’s about decoding it. Understanding what those men felt — and how the same human desires can be fulfilled in a moral, legal, deeply powerful way. Because the attraction isn’t to crime. It’s to the intensity of being alive.

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Preamble

There is a reason Goodfellas still captivates people decades later. It’s not just the violence or the style — it’s the psychology.

When Henry Hill says, “For us, to live any other way was crazy,” he isn’t describing crime. He’s describing a state of being that most people never experience:

intensity
recognition
autonomy
power

This article breaks down why that life felt so intoxicating — and how the same human desires can be fulfilled ethically, legally, and sustainably.

1. The Three Sensations That Made Mobsters Feel “Untouchable”

Beneath the suits, the swagger, and the rituals, mobsters were addicted to three psychological highs:

1. Power

Immediate. No permission, no waiting, no bureaucracy. When they wanted something, it happened — instantly. The world bent around their will.

2. Recognition / Status

They didn’t walk into a room — they entered it. Not because of inner depth or wisdom, but because they represented a symbol: danger, influence, hierarchy. People looked. People feared. People respected.

3. Agency

Most humans adapt to their environment. Mobsters expected the environment to adapt to them.

This sensation — “I shape reality” — is one of the deepest cravings in human psychology. In normal life, you can experience these feelings — but slowly, ethically, through years of growth. The movies like Goodfellas or The Wolf of Wall Street compresse them into an intense cinematic experience.

That’s why they appeared to be “masters of the universe.” But every shortcut removes friction — and also removes safety from the foundations.

2. Can You Feel This Way Without Crime?

The intoxication is real. But it doesn’t require violence or illegality. You can experience the same inner sensations in legal, moral, sustainable forms:

Power → Autonomy

The freedom to choose your work, your time, your clients. A sovereign life crafted through skill, not fear.

Recognition → Respect

Status built on mastery, creativity, leadership, excellence. Not intimidation — admiration.

Agency → Competence

Skills so sharp that the world responds to you. You don’t force outcomes; you create them.

This version is:

slower
calmer
more stable
more rewarding
actually yours

It’s the difference between a drug high and long-term fulfillment. One explodes. The other endures.

3. What You Can’t Recreate in a Legal Life

There are elements of the mob life that cannot exist without crime:

absolute impunity
dominance built on fear
the adrenaline of constant danger
the myth of being “king of the neighborhood”
the power to bypass rules instantly
the illusion of infinite entitlement

These sensations come only from coercion — and end in collapse.

As Henry says at the end of Nicholas Pileggi’s book Wiseguy:

“Nobody from my old neighborhood ever died of natural causes.”

The peak is short. The crash lasts forever.

4. The Deeper Truth: You’re Not Drawn to Crime — You’re Drawn to Symbolic Fulfillment

Your attraction isn’t to the violence or illegality. It’s to the mythic intensity.

What you really want is:

aliveness
direction
identity
autonomy
mastery
social impact
meaning
a sense of destiny

These are spiritual cravings, not criminal ones. The mob is simply the shadow version of these desires — the immature, shortcut version.

The real versions require:

discipline
patience
emotional maturity
skill
responsibility
creativity
courage

Much less glamorous — but infinitely more powerful.

5. The Final Paradox

Mobsters felt like gods, yet their power was fragile and dependent on corruption to maintain — fragile, paranoid, dependent on violence to sustain a fantasy. The real “master of the universe” is not the man who shortcuts. It’s the man who transcends.

The man who:

builds competence
shapes his life intentionally
earns respect
creates value
walks freely, not fearfully
stands tall without destroying others

That is true sovereignty. That is real power. That is the version that lasts.

Conclusion

Fade to the final scene: Henry Hill in a bathrobe, newspaper under his arm, standing on the porch of a suburban house that could belong to anyone. No cash, no status, no adrenaline. Just a man who once felt like a god, now waiting for the morning paper like every other soul on the block.

The true irony of Goodfellas is that the mobsters’ lives seem grand and exhilarating… but underneath, they are superficial and unsustainable.

The truth is this:

The most powerful version of a man is not the one who shortcuts the rules — it’s the one who masters himself.