mushin no shin

So last night it was movie time again, this time it was Aaron Russo’s America: Freedom to Fascism.

To begin with, let me acknowledge that I supported Russo in his bid for the 2004 LP Presidential nomination, and I met him briefly at the convention that year (as it turns out, his doctor and I have the same name). I say this only to set up that I really did want to like the movie more than I did, and I hate not being able to give it a great review.

First, the good: Russo does a decent job of pointing out some of the ways in which this country is barrelling towards fascism, which he uses (in accordance with the quote which is possibly misattributed to Mussolini) to mean a corporate police state. Further he does a good job of explaining the role that the Federal Reserve has played in this process, and the consequential role that banking plays as the puppetmaster behind the politicians.

But, the bad:

First, as I feared he would, he spends way too much time on the Income Tax, and specifically the anti-tax arguments made by the We The People activists. Now I’m not going to speculate on the accuracy or efficacy of their argument (which is essentially that there is no law on the books that requires citizens to file a tax return). I oppose (personal) income tax as a matter of principle, and as such, I believe that by advancing legal loopholes, even if correct, activists undermine the greater issue by suggesting that if the law were different, the tax would be acceptable.

I’m not saying he shouldn’t mention the income tax and its role in the march towards fascism, nor am I saying he shouldn’t mention the legal-loophole movements (I’ve seen I think basically three variants on those ideas, though the WTP version seems to be the most plausible and has the best foothold). Just saying he shouldn’t spend half the movie talking about it. If he wanted to make a movie about the tax movement, so be it, but in a movie supposedly about this country’s general trend towards a police state, the issue was greatly out of proportion. Give it 15 minutes, and release 45 back to talking about the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, the death of habeas corpus, etc etc etc… some of which do get time, but not proportionally enough, and most of it long after the income tax talk has already shut our heads down.

Second is just a complaint about the film as cinema. I’m generally a fan of the current trend towards “docuvist” filmmaking, à la Michael Moore, Robert Greenwald, etc. I have no illusions that these films are unbiased, and it’s not a stretch sometimes even to call them docu-ganda, but I think so long as you go in knowing the film’s biases, they can be a great way to engage the masses in the war of ideas, and can entertain and inspire the hardcore at the same time.

Well, this film tries to catch that star, but falls sadly short, partly because of the mind numbing hour on the income tax, but moreso just because it never quite summons up the punch necessary to escape the realm of the traditional, dry, academic documentary. And when the film does try to utilize the more dramatic & humorous devices that Moore & company have mastered, it comes off contrived and seems to be trying-too-hard. It all has sort of that same sad-and-creepy vibe you get from seeing a parent trying to use the slang of their children.

Sooo — I dunno. I love to see libertarians striking out into this front of the culture war, and I’m glad to see Russo putting his all into the cause. And I suppose, for a first attempt, it ain’t bad. It’s certainly better than anything the right has done. But to catch up with the left, it’s gotta get better, and quick.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Babble, Politics, TV & Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.