Adventures in Politically Correct Filmgoing
Some anarcho-commisar at Samizdata writes
Just once I’d like to see the rich white capitalist win in the end and finish the movie with him giving it the full Bwahahahaha . . .
in a thread about – wait for it! Iron Man.
You can also find much concern elsewhere in the thread for those titans of laissez-faire, defense contractors.
Comment by Karen —
June 7, 2008 @ 12:10 am
Oh good grief. The bad guy in “Iron Man” turns down the chance to develop actual free market technology — the arc reactor — in favor of continuing the weapons business. And generally the business world frowns on killing the boss, at least in this country. Unless conservatives want to encourage the kind of management practices used in that “Star Trek” episode where Uhura wore the bikini uniform and Spock had the pointy beard, the really shouldn’t be praising Obadiah Stane.
Comment by RaÈ›ionalitate —
June 7, 2008 @ 12:31 am
You can also find much concern elsewhere in the thread for those titans of laissez-faire, defense contractors.
Given the massive government intervention in almost every market (security, water/agriculture/land use/transportation/energy, telecommunications, education) it’s understandable that most Americans can’t discern the market from the state.
Comment by Avram —
June 7, 2008 @ 2:31 am
This reminds me of something I realized after reading Zamyatin’s We a few months ago: In the early decades of the 20th century, fictional dystopias tended to be states gone bad. Recent dystopias tend to include nasty, all-powerful corporations.
Comment by dan —
June 7, 2008 @ 9:18 am
Earlier in that same comment, that same dude refers to ‘Independence Day’ as his favorite movie.
Quoth Stan Lee, ” ’nuff said!”
Comment by Doctor Memory —
June 7, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Would it be unsporting to point out that “Iron Man” in fact does end with the rich white capitalist Winning?
Comment by Jim Henley —
June 7, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
That was what I like to think of as “my point.”
Comment by Doctor Memory —
June 7, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
Ah, just so.
Heck, you could potentially read Iron Man as a treatise on the advantages of inherited wealth and the wisdom of a minimal estate tax. After all, if Starck Sr. had not been able to leave his entire fortune to his wastrel son, who would have saved those poor Afghan villagers from the Ten Rings? (In this light, the film’s only categorical error was not casting Paris Hilton as Pepper Potts to underline the point.)
Comment by mds —
June 7, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
Unless conservatives want to encourage the kind of management practices used in that “Star Trek†episode where Uhura wore the bikini uniform and Spock had the pointy beard
What do you mean, “Unless”?
Comment by stm177 —
June 8, 2008 @ 10:18 am
Wait.. Spock ended up running that universe, at least until the empire collapsed. There’s a moral there somewhere
Comment by TGGP —
June 8, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
Bill Whittle’s movie seems intended to do that, and I bet it will suck. The more I read about the dude the more surprised I am that Mencius Moldbug has some respect for him.