Say Anything Blog

I read the review previously and actually had the same thought as I was watching the film, when he decided to suck it up and just take the criticism because he could.  Completely NON heroic but what needed done. 

Also loved the complete rip off of the Dark Knight Returns with gang member Batman wannabees.  “I don’t wear hockey pants.” The subliminal advertising telling me this was “The best movie ever” was completely effective.

I didn’t get that he was Bush. But I did see the movie as a moral absolutist movie.

Joker was unmitigated evil.

For the first time in my adult life, I am ashamed of my country.

Kenny, I got it near the end when Batman just decides to take it. 

Early on I saw it as a war against terrorism. 

Joker was unmitigated evil.

Yeah, same thing.

There were tons of parts where Batman had to compromise “society’s values” in order to safeguard those values. That’s the Left’s biggest criticism of Bush.

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

I haven’t seen the movie yet (went opening day and couldn’t get in) so I’ve been boycotting articles and such about it until I actually get to see it.

But I did hear Rush talking about it the other day and his analysis of it as a “conservative movie” was interesting.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I wouldn’t call it a “conservative” movie so much as I would call it an “anti moral-relativism” movie. Though certainly far more conservatives stand against moral relativism than liberals; so I guess is that sense, yes.

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

Rush, like usual, probably took his analysis a step too far.

I like Rush, but he has a tendency to take a good argument to absurd lengths.

Anyway, I think the anti-moral relativism lesson is one our society is desperately in need of.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Anyway, I think the anti-moral relativism lesson is one our society is desperately in need of.

Judging by how well anti-moral relativism movies do against morally relativistic movies in the box office, I’d say our society, as a whole, has a pretty good grasp on things (if not rationally, then at least emotionally). It’s our “intellectuals” who need a kick in the head to reboot, if you will.

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

What about Pat Leahy’s cameo:

“We’re not intimidated by you thugs,” he says.

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

What about it?

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

Hairy.
The ‘mob’ themes and the problems with corruption in the government? I think, if anything, its bipartisan. I guess we all think of different badguys, eh? I think of federal politicians who don’t inquire and just tow the line, big party types. Those are the bad guys.

Leahy is one of the politicians who has the balls to challenge the Fed. Very few of the fiscal conservatives lifted a finger during Bush’s spending spree.

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

The ‘mob’ themes and the problems with corruption in the government? I think, if anything, its bipartisan.

That part is bipartisan.

The part where Batman sacrifices his popularity and makes himself the “bad guy” to do what he thinks is right is not.

There’s a reason why Democrats espouse populist values. They are more concerned with getting elected by the people than doing right by them.

Think of it in terms of free-market economics. Once upon a time, a bunch of dudes wanted to run the country such that everyone would be better off in the long-run. This created a market niche for other dudes to come in and say, “People aren’t smart enough to think of the long-run, they’ll be happy as pigs in shit and give us power if we give them short-term benefits regardless of how fucked they’ll be in the future.” And they took that market niche and became populists (read: liberals).

That’s of course simplified. But you get the idea.

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

Hairy
Nice try. I think you are reading into it a bit. Might the sacrifice in popularity to do the right thing be construed as a metaphor for the Senators who stick up against the Patriot Act which guts our constitution?
Gutting our constitution, suspending it, is just like being intimidated by the thugs into doing things their way. We were duped into gutting our wonderful system by thugs. Some people stood up for what they believed was right, despite popular opinion.

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

Unless I’m misreading you (and I assume we’re still talking about analogizing Bush to Batman), then you’re successfully making my case:

Gutting our constitution, suspending it, is just like being intimidated by the thugs into doing things their way.

Batman also had to compromise on his values to fight the thugs (he created that cell-phone spy system).

Some people stood up for what they believed was right, despite popular opinion.

Lucius Fox threatened to quit to make sure that Batman didn’t use the spy system except for that one time.

Of course Batman is still a movie, and making sure that the Patriot Act is used for just this “one thing” is not so simple. And the benefits of the Act to the American public are certainly arguable (if I knew how many terrorist attacks were stopped because of it, the CIA wouldn’t be doing a good job). But we are, afterall, talking about drawing analogies to movies.

On a side note. Your final point equivocates between “popular opinion” and “colleague opinion”:

Some people stood up for what they believed was right, despite popular opinion.

There was “popular opinion” among lawmakers for the Patriot Act. The general public had no opinion on the matter (if they even knew about it before it was passed). So those who “stood up” weren’t exactly risking their jobs. (Kind of like it’s irrelevant that Obama was against the War in Iraq when he was a State Senator.)

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

...they’ll be happy as pigs in shit and give us power if we give them short-term benefits regardless…

I think that’s more bipartisan too, though I would consider Pelosi and Obama masters of that art.

I think that’s more bipartisan too

I guess that’s true these days.

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera