7/4/08

As you can see by the date, I wrote this Nobody twelve years ago today. It was number 24. It seems as relevant today as it was then.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

July 4, 1996

Nobody Asked Me But.....

I do wish a happy birthday to my country. With all its faults, it still offers the best combination of freedom and opportunity of any place on earth.

In the opinion section of Sunday's Times, there was a long article in which many people replied to the question "what movies best represent or typify America and our way of life?" The answers ranged from the expected "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" to the unusual "Deep Throat." In any case, I found the question fascinating, and so here are my four choices. The first three are in no particular order, but the last is the one I consider most typical.

For my first choice, I am going to cheat a little and choose a genre rather than a single movie. I am talking about the pure and innocent, or sometimes not so pure and innocent, hero against the corrupt establishment. In other words, the Jefferson theme played over and over again in a myriad of times and settings. I am referring here to "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington," "Shane," "To Kill A Mockingbird" and a thousand others. America has always been a sucker for Jeffersonian idealism as long as they can temper it with a little old-fashion Hamiltonian greed.

Which is a nice way to sidestep into my next choice - a strange one in that it does not even deal with the United States. The movie I am talking about is "Schindler's List." How does this represent America? Because Schindler personifies the combination of Jefferson and Hamilton - representing the best of both philosophies. Do good and make a profit out of it. And if you finally have to choose between the two, choose the good.

My third choice is "Do The Right Thing." This film, which I believe to be an underrated classic, shows that the melting pot is ever ready to boil over. Racism, of both the domestic and European immigrant variety, is ever-present, and when you force immigrants and racial minorities to compete for a relatively small share of the economic pie, as we have always done, violent confrontation on some sort of regular basis is going to be the tragic result.

My fourth (actually my first) choice may surprise you. It is "The Wizard of Oz." We are a nation of Dorothys always looking for an easy way to solve our very serious problems. Our first choice is to be rescued by a wizard, usually, but not always, political. When that doesn't work, and more and more it doesn't, we retreat to our backup fantasy, a childhood and childish dream that we can stomp our feet and click our heels and our troubles will disappear. This is so much easier than the hard choices and hard work which is really our only salvation.

Enjoy the fireworks!!!