Just saw the flick "War of the Worlds" this weekend. Decent movie - amazing effects in parts, some big plot holes to deal with. Some annoying Spielberg flourishes as well. Overall, probably worth seeing and definitely worth renting when it comes out.
I won't try to dissect War of the Worlds here as a precise allegory for terrorism or imperialism or post 9-11 America. It's too incoherent to be a pure allegory anyway.
But there was an aspect of the movie that struck me vicerally: the scenes of the aliens' seemingly invincible death machines obliterating things and slaying human beings from above. Those scenes are simply incredibly done and are truly haunting.
Without trying to sound like a self-righteous prig, I immediately thought of what it would be like to be Vietnamese or Cambodians or Iraqis or one day, Iranians, under bombardment by American B-52s. Huge, unseen mechanisms dropping massive cluster bombs on villages. Anhilating men, women, children. Entire families.
Tne fact is, America has done some pretty awful things to rather defenseless human beings over the past 50 years. Things that morally implicate all of us. Things that urgently need to be acknowledged and addressed.
many people recoil from hearing such truths however. They blame and hate the messenger. This dynamic was explored by the ever-prescient Orwell: in his "1984," the Inner Party allows the broadcast of a dissident's (Immanuel Goldstein) "rants" against their crimes. They know the people will innately reject a truth-teller and turn their hate on him. (Incidentally Orwell's physical description of Goldstein is INCREDIBLY close to that of Noam Chomsky - including his voice).
Along these lines, there's a atriking quote from George Bernard Shaw: "If you tell the truth, make them laugh or they will kill you."
I don't know how to tell Americans these truths while making them laugh. But I find it increasingly dificult to deal with people who have no knowledge of the suffering that has been inflicted in their name. I cannot listen to people who urge us to be "patriotic" by mutely waving a flag.
I think it's great that Kossacks fight the small political brushfires everyday. It's important to focus on the details and to skirimish with the right on the issues of the day. But I also wish we could make Americans aware of the biggest picture of them all: the incredible responsibility we have as the world's dominant power. Americans MUST be made aware of the immense suffering their actions can mete out on huge numbers of other people. I consider it the most crucial issue of our time.