rangerBlog - April 30th, 2007

07:10 pm - Plutocracy Unbound

The 3rd Naruto Movie addresses the Capitalism vs. Socialism debate with all the subtlety of a brick wrapped in a pillowcase. (The better to swing it with my dear...)
Socialism is right, of course, and Capitalism is wrong.
Helping to eradicate the shades of gray in the situation- the villain isn't merely a capitalist blinded by his ideals- he's a robber baron. And the Socialist-king doesn't just want to provide services for the elderly and the poor, he wants to lower taxes! (These expenditures would be accomplished by reducing the privileges of the wealthy elite.) Socialists care about people, and Capitalists care about things etc etc repeat ad infinitum reducto.

I have several problems with this. One could simply say that these were specific characters, and should not be taken to represent all capitalists and socialists. Of course, you could say the same thing about the coin-jingling Jews in Mel Gibson's snuff film... and no one would believe it then either.

I have three problems here;
1) The Moon Country is a fictionalized version of Monaco. It has an economy based on a continuous influx of foreign currency from their casinos- a sort of golden ideal economic situation. Monaco is atypical by even the most generous standard, and using it as a test case to prove that socialism works is kinda stacking the deck.
2) The system used here is more complicated than it is being presented. The capitalist is evil because he wants to keep wealth and power for himself- but the good Socialist isn't in a hurry to give away power either... in fact he's adamant that leadership stay within his family. This is a system that requires a benevolent dictator to work. Someone with a vested interest in the common welfare, but who doesn't have to provide economically ruinous benefit-bribes every 4-6 years to stay in office. In short-- elections are the source of all evil.
3) The population is inert. In fact, we never see or hear a single citizen in this entire movie, they make no move to favor either side, which makes me suspicious.

#2 is mildly interesting for two reasons.
a) It highlights a paradox of Anime's quasi-political worldview. A good leader is necessary for good to be accomplished- but that leader must also be legitimate. Someone seeking to overthrow an unenlightened leader in order to enact good (ends justify means) is not a hero- they are merely a tragic bringer-of-chaos. (Tragic because their heart is in the right place.) Good can only be accomplished by teaching an unenlightened leader to become enlightened. And if you have a unenlightened leader who won't learn... you're simply fucked, because elevation cannot occur without legitimacy. The Japanese shrug and accept this sad state of affairs, "Nothing to be done."
a) It's all about trusting people ahead of institutions of government. This is very much anticlockwise of the western way of doing things- we like to place our faith in institutions... believing that checks-and-balances results in a self-righting system that will (however slowly) do good and elevate our population-- in effect turning people into cogs, slaving their actions to the fundamental guiding principles that can't help but benefit mankind.

Two other thoughts while watching this movie:
i) While Shikamaru is more awesome all-arond, Rock Lee is a better awesome for cinema.
ii) Why is HD-TV only twice the file size or normal TV?


Speaking of ultra-wealthy benevolent dictators... apparently the Cremation of Dull Care ceremony at Bohemian Grove is online. Sadly, it didn't live up to the legend, which involved a Hunter S. Thompson-directed snuff film.
Of course, strictly speaking, the legend describes an earlier, much smaller ceremony used to generate the Dull Care corpse for the ceremony, the two versions aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, and I admit that I find it highly likely that there actually is a human body used for the burning (since the end of the ceremony supposedly involves a reading of the bones.)
The ceremony itself wasn't satanic at all- it was just a nice symbolic ritual reminding people of the importance of not letting life's burdens turn you into an automaton. I admit, it is slightly unnerving that the internal logic of the ritual (not explained in either link, sorry, I've researched this subject in the past) is basically identical to the 'how to chat up godforms' method used by modern chaos magicians (which I rather do believe in,) especially since Moloch is, traditionally, a god of child sacrifice.

The Cremation of Dull Care ceremony: Charming!
Distinct possibility that a child prostitute was murdered to provide the corpse: Slightly less charming.

Current Mood: amused