Bush and Batman?

Andrew Klavan wrote a rather strange op-ed in the Journal today titled What Bush and Batman Have in Common.

In it he claims Batman: The Dark Knight is doing well at the box-office because it depicts “the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.”  For Klavan these values include tactics from the “by any means necessary” school, tactics allegedly shared by both Bush and Batman.  I wonder why Jack Bauer was left out since we know the Bush administration looked to him for inspiration on interrogation techniques.

I see three reasons why Klavan’s reading is incorrect:

  1. The Ledger factor: Heath Ledger died earlier in the year and understandably this created a great deal of interest in the movie.  It probably didn’t hurt that practically every critic said his performance in the movie was brilliant.  Before Klavan adopts Ledger into his conservative pantheon, we should remember that his breakthrough movie was a tender exploration of romantic love between two men, not exactly the stuff of conservative dreams.
  2. The Star Wars counter: Klavan goes on to claim that films which question the Bush administration’s view have bombed at the box office (Redacted, Rendition).   Lets level the playing field, shall we?.  Batman is probably as big a franchise as Star Wars is.  If you watched episodes I, II and III you probably caught the references to Bush term I rhetoric when the young Darth Vader says “if you aren’t with me, you’re against me”, or when Obi-Wan cries out “Only a Sith deals in absolutes!”.  These most recent Star Wars movies had terrible dialogue and weak scripts, but they still managed to  gross between 310 and 431 million in the US.  There is an audience for nuance in a battle between good and evil on American movie screens.
  3. The Iron Man defense: We don’t have to reach that far back though, Iron Man dealt pretty definitively and specifically with the corruption wrought by close ties between a military-industrial complex (Cheney-Halliburton or Rumsfeld doctrine anyone)?.  It’s still playing and has racked up 310 million, not too shabby for a super-hero who hadn’t ever starred in a movie.  Perhaps there was a lot of pent-up demand for movies about how a strategy focused on forcibly subduing unrest, without using the resulting peace to encourage development would fail in Afghanistan and Iraq (as it did in Europe right after WW-I).

I could go on, Klavan also suggests 300 is a conservative film about Bush administration values.  It deals with the defense of a small nation by a determined band fighting a great power with overwhelming military superiorty.  If there are any parallels to the situation we find ourselves in, they are on the wrong side.  I know we like rooting for underdogs, but on the global military field, we are Persia, not Sparta.  Perhaps Klavan was only referring to the movie’s Spartans losing the battle after they demean and spurn their allies.

In any case, it’s a bit of a reach to look for support of your tactics in the box office results for a superhero movie.  That’s sort of like saying the American people love intellectual serial killers since Silence of the Lambs and Seven were hits.  We don’t have to search for such tenuous links, enough surveys have asked the question directly of the American citizenry.  70% of them say they have a negative view on the Bush administration’s Iraq policies,  59% give the Bush administration negative marks on fighting terrorism  and Bush wins the contest for worst president since WW-II.   The problem isn’t that the Bush administration has failed to spin their actions as well as Batman or Hollywood can.  They were pretty successful at it for a few years, but there’s a firm strain of independence in the American spirit, and there’s only so long we’re willing to accept authority without question, especially when it is inept.  The American citizen also knows enough to realize that what makes for good theater doesn’t necessarily make for good policy.

The truly frightening thing is that Klavan claims to speak for freedom, but has managed to write a defense of tyranny.   After all, what else would you call oppressive power vested in a single person, the doctrine of the unitary executive?

No worries!

I’m thinking about what it means to be racked by worry. I’ve suffered under that burden occasionally, but I think I’m past it now. I know what satisfies me, and I know it doesn’t require a particula

Seattle Blues

Seattle the last weekend was perfect, awesome weather, fun wedding, great friends (old +new) and marvelous conversation. In the middle of June there was three feet of snow at Mt. Rainier’s lower slop

Ride west

I’m preparing for a motorcycle ride across the US, combined with a couple of hikes and visits to friends.  The prospect of spending so much time in the saddle on the open road can perk me up in a moment.  To cap it off, I’ll be spending time in Glacier NP and Redwood NP, both are places I’ve dreamt of  visiting for years.  I’ve been on the road since I was 6, but this will qualify as my longest solo trip in a vehicle and definitely the longest on a motorcycle.  You can read all about it.?

On your back

Learning to ride a snowboard is hard work.  Particularly so when you’ve 6 foot 4, have a long, wide board and live in the North-East.  Edge changes are not my favourite things in the world right now.  But I do have that trip to Argentina in September to look forward to, hope they have tons of powder down there.?

Surprise

Who woulda thunk it.  Never would I have thought I’d be where I am, doing what I’m doing.  It’s not the unqualified success that draws the sentiment, there is no success.  It’s the manner in which my path has transcended the limits I wore around me.  I’d never imagined I’d live in Switzerland.  Climbing and skiing mountains are an aweful pleasure for a city boy from Bombay every day.  And I’d never thought contact lenses could be so liberating.  Or that a great shirt and a fabulous tie would make me feel like a giant.  I never thought I’d go weeks without writing anything interesting, just answering e-mails.  I never thought just working would lead you to sell your soul.  I never thought I’d be so lazy.?

What does a good person do?

What do you think a person in the Bush administration who opposes this war should do?

I encourage people who are in the position now that I was in then — namely of seeing us about to embark on a wrongful, unjustified and illegitimate war that is a crime against the peace — to consider doing what I wish I had done in 1964.

That is, if they have documents indicating that the president is lying the public into such a war, they should take those documents to the Congress and to the press, and tell the truth — even if it costs them their clearance, their job, their career, even if puts them in prison.

— From the Salon Interview with Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon papers and author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon papers

One of the biggest struggles in every human life is challenging the status quo. It’s never easy, it’s rarely immediately rewarding, but doing the right thing hardly ever is. Nevertheless, we owe it to ourselves to think carefully about our role in every act. Every action or non-action we take is an act of will, and that’s not something you should squander in the short existence you have on this green planet. We never regret taking the right path. Even if you do go far on the wrong road, who exactly will your companions be? And where is the pleasure in consorting with people of weak morals?

Blog Envy

It’s amazing how reading a couple of blogs makes me want to update my own site.  Never thought of myself as so painfully pedestrian.  Zurich gets drearier by the day.  The trees bare their branches to the speckled grey sky.  A patch of blue is something to exclaim over, like a little boy.  Europe must enjoy some of the shittiest weather on the planet. On a positive note, I’m getting more D’arenberg wines so it’ll be a pleasantly groggy winter.  My fireplace makes me feel medieval since I have to go buy fire-wood.  The big decision is whether I go to the farm up the hill or get a neatly packed cardboard box from the super-market.

On some Sundays I feel as if I’m keep Gandhi’s vow of silence.  My restlessness is at bay if I don’t call anyone and restrict myself to reading, answering correspondence and cooking.  Ah yes, cooking’s become a pet hobby and I’m toying with the idea of turning mostly vegitarian.  Most meat is mass-produced junk, and the the animals are treated cruelly with lives that are nasty, brutal and short.  And why would one want to consume textureless ground up mystery-flesh?  The epiphany came to me as I was cutting a large piece of beef.