primeideal | Talk Less

Don't let them know what you're against or what you're for.
You wanna get ahead?
Fools who run their mouths off wind up dead.

Why do you always say what you believe?
Every proclamation guarantees
Free ammunition for your enemies.

And if it fails?
And what if you're backing the wrong horse?

We are definitely not supposed to root for Aaron Burr in "Hamilton." We can sympathize with him, as in "Wait For It," or "The Room Where It Happens" (I play by the rules, why don't good things come to me?). But once he has his moment of realization in "The Room Where It Happens," he becomes increasingly selfish and power-hungry, and winds up acting without principles to seek influence. In the end, of course, he's the reason why Hamilton winds up dead, and...yeah, we're not supposed to root for him.

But we see in "Hurricane"/"The Reynolds Pamphlet" that Hamilton's instinct is to write everything down, confess his mistakes, and hope that that clears his name. While it gets him out of legal trouble, it ruins his personal life. And now even more than in 2015, I think Burr's advice is a lot more...useful...for the social zeitgeist.