Everything in the movie Cloverfield is shot on a tiny digital camera, like a futuristic America’s Funniest Home Videos, though regrettably without the presence of Bob Saget, whose “fuck”-and-”cunt”-ridden comedy routines are a sturdy 90-story testament to the beauty and force of The Free Speech (plus are hilarious).Thus, the first thing that it teaches us is the awesome power of consumer electronics to make our lives more fulfilling. Contrary to those pernicious wrongdoers who call themselves “community activists” and “historic preservation societies,” all humanity is made more excellent and fulfilled by the presence of a Best Buy.*
As happiness economic research from the likes of Will Wilkinson and other libertarian geniuses tell us, sometimes positional goods can make us even better individuals than we already are by unlocking our inner selves and giving them the blessing of row upon row of individual choice. And at a marked down rate too, if you wait long enough.
The movie begins by showing us that its heart is in the right place. The hero, when we first see him, has sex with his fantastically beautiful girlfriend in an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York. Then the story moves to a party where everyone is drinking in celebration of him getting a huge raise and a promotion.
It is from this that we know that economic success and fucking are at the core of this film. I believe this is what is meant when people refer to a “family values” movie. Certainly no one could deny that these are both integral to the promotion and experience of The Freedom.
As Ayn Rand herself explained, men can be like animals, both in the bedroom and in the boardroom (a phrase she actually invented). Unfortunately, none of the characters smoke or take heroin. This is a mistake that I am confident will be rectified in future editions, thanks to modern advances in CGI.
Speaking of Ayn Rand, it is upon her whom we rely to understand the rest of the film. Rand gave us instructions to love big cities, for collections of giant steel buildings in close proximity surrounded by trash and poor homeless wretches are not only beautiful, but great, inspiring, and powerful symbols of The Freedom.
Thanks to this knowledge, we can see that the entire city of New York is a metaphor for human greatness. In other words, The Freedom made physical, ie: economic success and fucking.
So when a monster, called Cloverfield, starts to destroy the city, it makes the viewer weep with sadness. The monster makes trouble and rubble, like Stalin but with green skin and a tail, and the entire time it is destroying, the tragedy is almost overwhelming. In fact, one can only recoil in fear and terror of what will happen to the stock market.
Indeed, it is surprising and terrifying as any film ever. One can hardly believe it, but it must be true: Plainly, this monster has not heard of Frédéric Bastiat’s famous broken windows fallacy. Tearing down the city will not increase economic output. This has also been called the “make-work” fallacy. Monsters, it seems, like so many politicians, would not even pass economics 101.
Clearly the film is a parable about the dangers of economic illiteracy, and the grave fiscal threat posed by letting a destructive socialistic force run amuck in the heart of the capitol of capitalism and The Freedom, N-Y-C. If a Socialism-loving monster were to attack Wall Street, all lovers of liberty would be threatened. That cannot happen. We must all be vigilant.
*This is later reinforced when the hero must loot a small electronics store to find a cell phone battery. A Best Buy would have handled the purchase promptly and efficiently, and probably cheaper too, as well as created more jobs.
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Filed under: Freedom on Film
