Last Friday, Peggy and I experienced sticker shock by going to the movies. I needed to see the documentary film “America,” produced by Dinesh D’Souza.
“That’ll be sixteen dollars please.”
“What? Do you see this white hair? What happened to the five dollar tickets?”
“This is Friday sir we charge the weekend rates. The five dollar ticket is for Monday through Thursday.”
I quit fighting, paid the money, and went to get Peg her bag of pop-corn. I buy a small bag because she eats one or two handfuls and then quits. I end up eating the rest. “Six dollars please.”
“What? Would you repeat that I don’t think I heard correctly, I thought I heard you say six dollars.”
“It is six dollars sir.” During the week, I scream at an outrageous price of four-seventy-five for the same bag, and now they want six. Oh well that is capitalism at its finest.
We were the first ones in the theater and chose seats in the second row center. That makes it easy for me to sneak out for a whiz if I need to go. We sat and began watching trailers for new films to come. Peg and I shared the pop-corn. About mid-way through the third trailer, I had to fidget and eased my grip on the pop corn. PLOP! It fell to the floor. I saw my six bucks fly off with wings on it. Luckily I saved enough by carefully picking up the bag; Peg’s few handfuls saved.
The movie America, is an excellent expose of Progressivism and D’Souza points out the background for the Progressivist movement. In a nut shell, liberals hate colonialism, and that hatred permeates our society with arguments based on the premise that colonialism is theft. He briefly mentions that Obama’s father hated colonialism because his home country of Kenya was a British colony. Obama senior served as advisor to Jomo Kenyatta who ruled Kenya after breaking away from Britain. Unfortunately for Barack senior, Kenyata quickly saw through Obama’s scheme and fired him. (Evidently the Kenyans are much smarter than Americans.)
Here are some of the progressive arguments:
1. America stole the land from the native Indians.
2. Americans prospered on the labor stolen from slaves.
3. America stole land from Mexico.
4. America thrives on capitalism which steals from the average person to make business owners filthy rich.
5. America based its foreign policy on stealing resources (oil) from the mid-east.
The film very expertly examines the basis for each of these arguments then turns to debate each with sound facts. I have used many of the same arguments deduced from the faint knowledge of history that I have and some common sense. The problem is that the liberals teach their arguments in high school and college, and a Howard Zinn textbook is now used by fifth grade teachers. Zinn is most notorious for writing history textbooks that explain history from the viewpoint of the common man. Zinn does not offer a second viewpoint in his books, so our kids learn history from the viewpoint of socialism. In the film, a colleague of Zinn from the same school absolutely refutes Zinn’s perspective of history. (I wondered why this guy didn’t speak up about Zinn to University leaders. It must be the mindset of college professors to leave each other alone under First Amendment rights.)
During his defense of stealing land from Mexico, Dinesh interviews a young man of Mexican descent who lives in the U.S. on land purportedly stolen from his ancestors. The man loves America and has no desire for his state to be returned to Mexico. In fact he argued that the current Mexicans are upset that the U.S. gave back half of the land they conquered during the Mexican-American War of 1846 and paid the Mexicans for the other half. Had the U.S. kept all the land native Mexicans would have the same outcome.
America, kept me riveted to the screen from beginning to end, and I recommend everyone see the movie. I especially liked the rock version of the Star Spangled Banner played by Madison Rising. It was a perfect way to end the course.
Yesterday, I sent a letter to each of my high school aged grandkids with a flyer for the film and a twenty-dollar bill. I asked them to take a friend to see America.
D’Souza left me disappointed in one aspect. In his intro to the film he asks us what would the world be like if there was no America? I didn’t see the answer to this question anywhere in the movie. I expected to see a version of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where we see the outcome of North America had the American Revolution not succeeded. I’ve been thinking about the question ever since, and will write an essay based on my own visions.
Filed under: conservatives, family, Government, LIBERAL, Movie Review | Tagged: America, capitalism, Colonialism, Dinseh D'Sousa, Documentary, History, Howard Zinn, Madison Rising, Obama, Progressivism | 1 Comment »
