June 21, 2010

The Vast Right-Wing Filmography

By: AF Editors

In the Mises blog, Mateusz Machaj speculated that the “A” in “A-Team Stands for Anarcho-Capitalism” and I think he’s onto something. The “A-team is an illegal, anti-government, underground organization of people who escaped from prison. They are outlaws, surely pay no taxes, and, in most episodes, the US army is chasing them.” “[The] whole series is built on the idea that there are easily recognizable ethical values that cannot be questioned by any human being, even by the state itself.” Furthermore, “[the] whole philosophy of the A-team boils down to an axiom of non-aggression.”

Perhaps I was not paying attention before, but it seems to me that lately there have been an unusually large amount of libertarian-friendly themes in movie pop-culture. “Kick-Ass” was reviewed by BigGovernment as being “the quintessential libertarian movie.” Amity Shlaes wrote that ”Robin Hood” was Tea Party friendly, despite the intentions of its producers. That begs me to ask, what influence does movie culture have on political thought and vice-versa? For years conservatives and libertarians have bemoaned the left slant of Hollywood with a dismissive tone towards the politics of those in the industry. Today, though, particularly with people like Thor Halvorssen and the MPI in our corner, I wonder if the box office can reflect an acceptance of classical liberalism in art. I suspect that many influential producers and actors will always be left-of-center, but perhaps the film industry is dynamically progressing — and not just in terms of technology.