2 Movie Reviews (A Libertarian's Perspective)

I am off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this week for business, and I have decided it is very far away from NYC. All told it will be about 18 hours total flight time. 6 hours from NY to London, then an additional 12 ½ to KL, that is not including the check-in at JFK and layover time at Heathrow, nor the kid in London who chickened off the flight in London, since he did not want to see his father and cost us another hour. I am now writing this at 38000 feet, somewhere above India, south east of New Delhi at 1:45 am (Eastern) 1:45 pm KL, according to the onboard navigation system.

I saw two movies on my way here that has struck a cord with me. The first was V for Vendetta, starring Natalie Portman (she looked great as usual) and Hugo Weaving. The story, based upon a DC Comic, takes place in a futuristic London society where the British government has become a totalitarian state, run by a conservative dictator, who has expertly gained power claiming that only his government can effectively protect its citizens. The government has obtained this power through a vast conspiracy where a number of government officials have set off three separate domestic terrorist attacks. They then find suitable seditionists and traitors, whom the government says are unpatriotic and they can be tried for treason. Then they are summarily found guilty executed and the government claims the country safer now that these internal threats have been eliminated.

What resonated with me, is how reasonable it was to see how a modern nation could snowball so quickly from its present state to this new fictional state. It was not hard to see the dominoes fall into place, and how easily the citizens were willing to sacrifice their personal liberties in order to become perceivably more safe and sound in the government’s bosom. It takes a disfigured and disenfranchised human guinea pig from the putsch who escaped, to take the form of Guy Fawkes, a 17th century terrorist who attempted to blow up parliament, and make the citizens question the government and the actions of its leaders when he suggests the same action now that the doomed Fawkes tried centuries before.

V: ...A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world.

The second point that stayed with me was near the end, the action or rather inaction of the military when citizens dressed as Guy Fawkes start to march on Parliament. The military are awaiting orders from the civilian government, which has alreayd been destroyed by V, on how to proceeed. Luckily, for the citizens, the generals decide to stand down and allow the marchers to pass unscathed. This was interesting to me, since in most cases of actual insurrection the military will not fire upon its own citizens, those that they have been sworn to protect. I would have enjoyed seeing the generals given an order to stop the marches and having the citizen soldier disobey, with the underlying idea that his brother, mother, aunt, neighbor etc. might have been in the crowd. Either way, it was good to see the military not lash out at its own citizens, a refreshing change from reality.

The second movie was All The Presidents Men. I thought it was odd that a Malaysia Airlines flight would carry this old conspiracy story, which ultimately brought down President Richard Nixon, but it did. This film is still an amazing story about how two resourceful reporters were able to uncover a vast cover-up that obviously went all the way to the top of our government. It just begs the question, where is today’s Woodward and Bernstein, that is uncovering every rock on the (or any) current administration to ensure that what the government is doing is legal. In spite of my libertarian leanings or past postings, I am not currently implying that President Bush has done anything illegal, but rather it is the responsibility of the press to uncover the truth and report factually and without prejudice or bias, providing the citizens the facts allowing the people to decide public opinion. This is not the job of spin-meisters, talking heads or pollsters. Just think where we would be without Watergate? Scary huh?