A while back I posted a diary which implied that the movie "300" was neocon propaganda based on promoting prolonged war in the Middle East.
A lot of you folks on DKos called BS on my assertion and said "it was just a movie" etc etc and that there were no hidden motives behind it. Well, allow me to acquaint y'all with Mr. Frank Miller, the author of the "300" comic book on which the movie is based. Frank believes that in a post-9/11 world we are locked in a battle between good and evil where the West once again is leading the banner of civilization against those Eastern barbarians, just like the Greeks who met the Persians at Thermopylae.
Below are snippets of an interview that Miller did with NPR back in January titled "State of the Nation", in which he incessantly defends Bush, says that all people in the Middle East are barbarians, and that Americans need to support future imperial adventures abroad.
Link to the interview (audio): http://www.npr.org/...
(transcript): http://www.rottentomatoes.com/...
Behold the words of Frank Miller and the true meaning of "300".
NPR: […] Frank, what’s the state of the union?
FM: Well, I don’t really find myself worrying about the state of the union as I do the state of the home-front. It seems to me quite obvious that our country and the entire Western World is up against an existential foe that knows exactly what it wants … and we’re behaving like a collapsing empire. Mighty cultures are almost never conquered, they crumble from within. And frankly, I think that a lot of Americans are acting like spoiled brats because of everything that isn’t working out perfectly every time.
So by saying that "we're acting like a collapsing empire" Frank Miller believes that America needs to have an empire.
NPR: A lot of people would say what America has done abroad has led to the doubts and even the hatred of its own citizens.
FM: Well, okay, then let’s finally talk about the enemy. For some reason, nobody seems to be talking about who we’re up against, and the sixth century barbarism that they actually represent. These people saw people’s heads off. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to us. I’m speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture, and I’m living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built.
Hey Frank, you might want to swing by Barnes and Noble and pick up a a copy of "History for Dummies" because the pre-Islamic Persia of Darius, Xerxes, and Cyrus the Great bears little resemblance to current-day Iran. And frankly, I don't see how blaming Iranians/Persians for 9-11 for something that a tiny band of Saudis and Egyptians did is in any way relevant.
NPR: And as you talk to people in the streets, the people you meet at work, socially, how do you explain this to them?
FM: Mainly in historical terms, mainly saying that the country that fought Okinawa and Iwo Jima is now spilling precious blood, but so little by comparison, it’s almost ridiculous. And the stakes are as high as they were then. Mostly I hear people say, ‘Why did we attack Iraq?’ for instance. Well, we’re taking on an idea. Nobody questions why after Pearl Harbor we attacked Nazi Germany. It was because we were taking on a form of global fascism, we’re doing the same thing now.
NPR: Well, they did declare war on us, but…
FM: Well, so did Iraq.
So basically, Frank Miller has an agenda and that's to draw a comparison between the Greco-Persian Wars with the current War on Terrorism. He believes that Americans need to line up and support guys like Bush 100% because "we are at war" and that, like the Battle of Thermopylae, Western civilization is once again threatened by the barbarians of the east.
And to top it off, according to the Frank Miller world view, Iraq "declared war on us". That's right Frank, a tiny third world country with internal divisions and sanctions and no-fly zones is tantamount to the threat that Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany posed during WWII.
And to think so many "educated" bloggers on the typically left-wing DKos all rose up to defend this neocon tripe. You guys seem to think that this movie has no long-term impact, but it only serves to strengthen neocon propaganda. Neocons like Frank Miller understand the value of ideational power....and all of you fell for it.