I got this from Aynnie this morning. She can’t get to F&S because her employer (Yeah, can you believe it? She actually works for people!) has a content filter she can’t get around. But I thought I’d post this in her absence:

Headed to Des Moines. Who’s coming with me?

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Filed under: Freedom on Film

What is scarier than an atomic bomb? Keanu Reeves with a cause.

In the upcoming remake of the Day the Earth Stood Still, the actor will step into the role of Klaatu, delivering the message that if we as a species do not act now, global warming will destroy us–changing the original agent of our destruction from war and nuclear weapons.

“The first one was borne out of the cold war and nuclear détente. Klaatu came and was saying cease and desist with your violence. If you can’t do it yourselves we’re going to do it. That was the film of that day,” Reeves explained. “The version I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it’s more about man against nature. My Klaatu says that if the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. I’m a friend to the earth.”

Though I kind of doubt he used the word detente, Keanu makes sense. After all, what’s more frightening, the skin-searing, city-leveling instant death of nuclear bombs, or the idea that in 500 years time we’ll be able to walk outside without jackets in early March? EARLY March! The horror! The horror!

The new version also, perhaps unwittingly, hits the environmentalist-nail on the head, highlighting their core belief– that nature is more important than the lives of men.

On review though, this switch-over to global warming doesn’t really seem as smooth as I first thought. I haven’t read the story, nor have I watched the original movie, but it seems that the aliens in the original version had some real cause to worry about humanity engaging in ever increasingly sophisticated warfare…I mean, it is conceivable that we would one day create weapons with a range that might endanger other planets.

But global warming? Not so much. Why would aliens feel the need to regulate us destroying our own planet? It just doesn’t jibe. Unless they try to claim that humans in the future will spread the effects of global warming to affect other planets (like the way Halliburton totally caused the mars ice caps to melt).

Then again, I am trying to make sense out of a Keanu Reeves movie, which can sometimes feel like working with an alien rubik’s cube.

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Filed under: Freedom on Film, Pop! Goes the Culture

Huckabee has Chuck Norris. Obama has Oprah. Hillary gets…the Joker?

I like the selections in the video. First, you have a psychotic clown killer who (fittingly) yells “MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Who do you trust?!?” The next guy is a stir-crazy homicidal maniac talking to an imaginary bartender. And then, of course, you have a Marine colonel from Gitmo who, as Nick Gillespie points out, supports torture of his own soldiers.

The best line of the video was taken out of context, so I thought I’d refresh your memory as to what Col. Jessup actually said about superior officers:

And finally, one clip I’m really surprised didn’t make the cut for the Hillary ad:

Via our good friends at Hit & Run.

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Filed under: Freedom on Film, Mock the Vote

Other working titles:

Afternoon Dance Party: Gettin’ Girls Is How I Live
Afternoon Dance Party: Spreading Myself Around
Afternoon Dance Party: Yo, Teddy, Kick It Like This

Okay, I think you get my point. This song RULES! And, it’s very libertarian: Yes, Bobby Brown, you can have money in your pocket. Because of capitalism and freedom and shit.

Enjoy, friends.

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Filed under: Freedom on Film, Afternoon Dance Party

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

Tim Burton is obviously a libertarian (or possibly an anarchist). You know this because he wears black, has freaky hair, and makes movies about themes of having difficulty with his parents, ie: authority figures. He is clearly in favor of sexual The Freedom. He has inspired literally millions of individualists, by which I mean goths. It is perhaps already clear, but, like guns, fishnets are a big symbol of The Freedom.

So it is not surprising that Burton’s newest movie, Sweeney Todd, a sing-along film about a killer barber in ancient England, is, at its heart, a stirring defense of the ideas of liberty.

Let us look at the facts.

Sweeney Todd, played with soul-mesmerizing uniqueness by Johnny Depp, who you may remember from Pirates of the Caribbean (a movie which hailed the life of pirates for its freedomic spirit), is basically just a businessman. If you watch Larry Kudlow TV, as you probably do, or read bloggings by The Club for Growth – or as we say it, “The Club” – you will know that business is an important part of The Freedom, because it is the part that makes money.

Todd gets screwed over by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman, who you can tell is a socialist, because of his Euroish accent), who is essentially a representative of the state, which we, having read David Friedman’s The Machinery of Freedom know that we do not even need at all. (You can tell David is a powerful advocate for The Freedom because it is in his book title, and he compares it to a machine, like the automobile, or the machine gun, which are both also highly related to The Freedom.)

Naturally, Todd seeks revenge on the Judge, which symbolizes lashing out against the oppressive power of the state, as we all do.

During that time, though, he becomes an entrepreneur with the meat pie maker below his shop. They kill homeless people and serve them up in meat pies. Many throats are sliced, which is known as “creative destruction.”

This is a fantastic business opportunity during a time of economic downturn. It shows that if you find a market niche, you can always make more money. As Milton Friedman said, the market will tell us what to do.

The Judge tries to stop him, but in the end, such onerous regulation harms the economy. He kills the Judge. As always, The Freedom prevails.

Everything in this movie is unbelievable genius, which John Locke himself would have recognized and praised as such. It is not perfect though. What should have been added is Todd making it a little more clear that high corporate tax rates and taxes on carried interest were affecting his investment opportunities, perhaps in a long and powerful monologue at the end (or even a PDF emailed to everyone who buys a ticket).

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Filed under: Freedom on Film

Libertarians love science fiction, and science fiction movies. So needless to say, this was a big week for them. Not only was it the grand finale to the annual Official U.S. Buy Lots of Shit to Help the Economy Season, it was also the release of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

I think it’s safe to assume that everyone who views the world through a basic Millian framework, ie: all F&S readers, knows that the Alien movies and the first two Predator movies were the epitome of uber-awesome. Even beyond the obvious libertarian themes, you had essential elements for awesome: 1) cool looking alien monsters 2) explosions 3) death 4) people kicking ass 5) technology that was amazing and saved everything (as technology eventually will).

The movies were also good metaphors, with many robust ideas about liberty, which is why they had such a big impact on the Culture. Many people say that Alien was about The Feminism. Because the alien was a big penis, basically, and because the badass chick Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, killed it in the end. Also, because all the men died. The Feminism is a friend to The Freedom, in theory anyway, so I think this sounds OK. Read more…

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Filed under: Freedom on Film

PT Anderson is the genius behind that cinematic monument to free speech (ie: pornography), Boogie Nights. He also made Magnolia, which has a subplot about the authoritarianism and tyranny of fathers. Who are, basically, fascists. Needless to say, I expected a lot from this libertarian genius. His new film, There Will Be Blood, delivers, and then some.

In short, it as about The Freedom.

And by The Freedom, I mean capitalism. By which I mean oil production in California about a hundred years ago, back before Exxon made oil such an obviously libertarian commodity. It stars Daniel Day Lewis as an oil entrepreneur who tells stupid people bullshit in order to buy their land very cheap and then exploit its resources.

In other words, he was an innovator for The Freedom.

When one person refuses to sell his land, Lewis just buys all the land around the guy and then sucks the oil out from under him anyway. “Like a milkshake,” is how he explains it. This is The Freedom in action. It shows the power of capitalism, and how capitalism can make you money no matter what.

The movie is excellent because it proves, once and for all, that Hayek* knew what he was talking about. Milton Friedman would love it. And so, I think, will you, and indeed, all people who truly love The Freedom.

* For those who do not know, Hayek was especially pro-The Freedom, so I feel it is safe to say that he would have given the big Austrian thumbs up to Anderson’s vision of pornography and capitalism, and how they are excellent.

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Filed under: Freedom on Film