Life Imitates Art
Various news sources that really ought to be doing something more important have been covering the flap about the political subtext in the newest Star Wars movie. Apparently, there's a scene where Anakin, well on his way toward becoming Darth Vader, says "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." For many, this brings to mind President Bush's post-9/11 comment "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
It seems to me that people have got this a bit backwards. What's going on is not that a sci-fi action film is sounding like the President, and pretending to political significance beyond its station. What's going on here is that we have been ruled by a President with a foreign policy as sophisticated as a bad action movie. It isn't that the movie character is sounding like the President, it's that the President says things that would best serve as dialog for a B movie character.
Perhaps this confusion about whether the President was real, or merely a character in an sci-fi adventure, played some role in some people believing that our high-tech army would have such success in Iraq. Between the unmanned drone aircraft and our "smart" bombs, our droid army could be expected to triumph quickly, with some awesome effects shots in the process. Sadly, it now appears that Iraqi insurgents have about as much trouble getting through our checkpoints as Obi-wan and Luke did getting past the storm troopers in that desert city on Tatooine. And they aren't even using Jedi mind-control.
If only George Bush had chosen to echo dialog from Han Solo, or Obi-wan. It's a shame that, if he had to emulate a Star Wars character, he couldn't have chosen one of the heroes. Instead, we got dialog that fits a character full of anger, self-righteousness, and unfounded pride, who lashes out inappropriately and makes everything worse. Well, at least the President is living up to his part.
But who would have thought that, when American policy started to resemble a Star Wars movie, that we'd be on the Dark Side?
It seems to me that people have got this a bit backwards. What's going on is not that a sci-fi action film is sounding like the President, and pretending to political significance beyond its station. What's going on here is that we have been ruled by a President with a foreign policy as sophisticated as a bad action movie. It isn't that the movie character is sounding like the President, it's that the President says things that would best serve as dialog for a B movie character.
Perhaps this confusion about whether the President was real, or merely a character in an sci-fi adventure, played some role in some people believing that our high-tech army would have such success in Iraq. Between the unmanned drone aircraft and our "smart" bombs, our droid army could be expected to triumph quickly, with some awesome effects shots in the process. Sadly, it now appears that Iraqi insurgents have about as much trouble getting through our checkpoints as Obi-wan and Luke did getting past the storm troopers in that desert city on Tatooine. And they aren't even using Jedi mind-control.
If only George Bush had chosen to echo dialog from Han Solo, or Obi-wan. It's a shame that, if he had to emulate a Star Wars character, he couldn't have chosen one of the heroes. Instead, we got dialog that fits a character full of anger, self-righteousness, and unfounded pride, who lashes out inappropriately and makes everything worse. Well, at least the President is living up to his part.
But who would have thought that, when American policy started to resemble a Star Wars movie, that we'd be on the Dark Side?
posted by Paul at 11:56 PM |
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