Leitmotif:
a phrase or other feature that is repeated often in a work of art, literature, or music and that tells you something important about it:
- Death and renewal are leitmotivs running through the whole novel. [Cambridge Dictionary]
Noted in “Sam Bankman-Fried, a personal verdict,” Michael Lewis, WaPo:
“In other words,” said the judge, “a man willing to flip a coin as to the continued existence of life and civilization on Earth, if the chances were imperceptibly greater that it would come out without that catastrophic outcome, that’s really a leitmotif in my judgment of this entire case. … It’s his nature.” Because it was his nature, the judge concluded, Sam [Bankman-Fried] would, if given the chance, do something like what he had just done all over again. “There is a risk that this man will be in a position to do something very bad in the future, and it’s not a trivial risk, not a trivial risk at all,” said the judge. “So, in part, my sentence will be for the purpose of disabling him.” He then sentenced Sam to 25 years in prison, with no possibility of parole.
