Does Liberal Ideology Come Directly From the Movies?

I finally had the opportunity to see James Cameron’s paean to nature, “Avatar.” It is definitely beautifully filmed and there is an edenic quality to the alien planet of Pandora that probably reflects the director’s image of the biblical garden. It is typical, however, of Hollywood denizens to find paradise in another realm than to look at what is already here without criticizing the negative human impact on our blue planet.

The Cold War and the possibility of nuclear annihilation prompted many apocalyptic films in the ’50’s and ’60’s. As a child I watched films of giant tomatoes, giant alligators; giant frogs and rabbits and more all caused by mutations generated by nuclear accidents. Is it any wonder that the hippies and leftists protested, very effectively I might add, against the building of nuclear facilities and power plants? ‘The China Syndrome” was a movie that stuck in the minds of many in the movie industry even though nuclear accidents rarely occur here. Three Mile Island did not cause any injuries. Chernobyl’s disaster happened because the Russian reactor was built in an old military installation without the strict guidelines we use in the United States.

The ’60’s were fraught with cautionary tales of impending doom. One of my favorite films, La Dolce Vita, depicted the angst and melancholia of the intelligentsia over the threat of nuclear annihilation The brilliant Steiner worries so much about what the future holds for his two beautiful children; that “the end of the world could be announced with a phone call’; that he kills them and commits suicide. Honestly, nihilists have so few options, we must pity them.

Hollywood also surmised that the widespread starvation and lack of nutritional resources would certainly lead to governmental mandated cannibalism (Soylent Green).

Eventually wise environmentalists who instituted procedures to protect our natural resources were soon replaced with environmental wacko Chicken Littles screaming, “The globe is warming, the globe is warming!”

Patrick Campbell, the co-founder of Greenpeace and the only legitimate scientist in the group told me that he left Greenpeace because of its disdain for the human race. He saw his colleagues abandoning science and logic and adopting zero-tolerance policies that are environmentally negative.

But it’s not just the environmental loonies that get their scary information from the flicks, governmental and political paranoia has become an industry trademark. Gone are the days when Hollywood would champion American ideals and our glorious history. According to the studio moguls, reality would now expose the truth behind the evil mechanisms of governance especially when committed by Republicans. Reality, however, did not necessarily mean the truth.

Republicans are usually portrayed in film as bigoted racists yet the villains of the segregated South like Jim Crow, Bull Connor, and the Ku Klux Klan were all Democrats. Hollywood used to dole out the D.W. Griffith award for Directing until critics pointed out that his “Birth of a Nation” classic(?) was one of the most blatantly racist films of all time. Democrat president Woodrow Wilson hailed the film (which glorified the KKK) when it was shown at the White House. So much for reality.

War is hell and traditionally films depicted the tragedy of it very well but by the time of the Vietnam War military conflicts became the stuff of conspiracy. How many signs did we see at recent anti-war rallies that read “War for Oil” as if 9/11 never happened? This loony myth could have been born thanks to the Robert Redford thriller-‘Three Days of the Condor.” He plays a CIA researcher Joe Turner who stumbles on a renegade CIA agency’s plot. Look at the dialogue;

Turner: Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?

Higgins: Are you crazy? Turner: Am I?

Higgins: Look, Turner…

Turner: Do we have plans?

Higgins: No. Absolutely not. We have games. That’s all. We play games. What if? How many men? What would it take? Is there a cheaper way to destabilize a regime? That’s what we’re paid to do.

Higgins: It’s simple economics. Today it’s oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. Maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?

I love this film but when I saw it recently I thought, Hmmm, that’s the genesis of the War for Oil paranoia.

As for the immigration issue, one only has to see the film” El Norte” to feel for the plight of the immigrants dying to get here to agree that we must have open borders.

Thanks to the Internet and its online encyclopedias and newspaper archives I’ve discovered that many films based on the truth are not even close to it. Even documentaries edited by the likes of a Michael Moore are not to be trusted. All films should be regarded as entertaining fiction unless thoroughly vetted.

There is one film however that comes eerily close to divining what we’re headed for if liberals continue to hold power over our culture. It’s called “Idiocracy.”