In my response to my plug for Serenity and Firefly, I received an overwhelming number of emails. I would like to extend my thanks to all who wrote. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed the movie! I practice what I preach: I saw the movie Friday night and found it to be incredibly entertaining and libertarian.
I'd like to address all those who question the libertarian credentials of Serenity, Firefly, and/or Joss Whedon (the producer).
The first group of critics allege that Joss Whedon is a progressive/socialist. This is undeniably true (he does after all work in Hollywood: this is not exactly an uncommon political view among artists). To this I respond: so what? George Orwell was a socialist. Does that detract in the slightest from the libertarian themes of Animal Farm and 1984? Whedon may be a socialist, but Firefly and Serenity are undeniably libertarian works (and enjoyable ones at that!) and therefore worth watching.
The second group of critics admit that Firefly was libertarian, but question whether Serenity as a movie had anything to do with libertarianism. My response contains spoilers, so please see the movie before reading!
To my mind, Serenity's crucial theme was that of the dangers of governmental social engineering and "true believers." It also included many other libertarian sub-themes, including anti-government education (the scenes of River as a school girl) and anti-imperialism. To quote Joss Whedon:
Though inspired by the past and set in the future, Firefly and Serenity have a very timely real-world relevance, given the state of America’s foreign policy involvements.
“It’s a little more timely than I’d hoped,” he sighs. “The thing is, I do believe that when you try and force happiness on people, you find out that their version of happiness may not be yours.
“People keep calling the Alliance ‘the evil empire’, and I’m like, ‘Actually, it’s not an evil empire, it’s the most enlightened society in the galaxy – but they’re making the mistake any big power makes, which is to assume that their version of enlightenment should be spread everywhere, and that they can justly govern people who are beyond their reach, or living on their own terms, be they somewhat strange or archaic or even barbaric.
“And just dropping yourself into the middle of that and saying, ‘OK, we’re in charge of you now, be happy!’ ain’t gonna swing.”
Several responses to my review noted that the only "libertarian" theme in the entire movie had to do with a "government conspiracy." This is true – on the surface. But the government conspiracy reminds me more of Hayek than it does tinfoil capped eccentrics, and was the focus of a plot that warned against the dangers of Statist utopias:
The problem assumes the greatest importance when we consider that we are probably only at the threshold of an age in which the technological possibilities of mind control are likely to grow rapidly and what may appear at first as innocuous or beneficial powers over the personality of the individual will be at the disposal of government. The greatest threats to human freedom probably still lie in the future. The day may not be far off when authority, by adding appropriate drugs to our water supply or by some other similar device, will be able to elate or depress, stimulate or paralyze the minds of whole populations for its own purposes. If bills of rights are to remain in any way meaningful, it must be recognized early that their intention was certainly to protect the individual against all vital infringements of his liberty and that therefore they must be presumed to contain a general clause protecting against government's interference those immunities which individuals in fact have enjoyed in the past.
~ Friedrich Hayek, Constitution of Liberty
In conclusion, although I think that Whedon is more of a genius at directing TV shows than he is at directing the silver screen, Serenity was an exceptionally enjoyable movie that highlighted many of the themes most dear to libertarians. After seeing Serenity, I re-iterate my prior advice: go see the movie!
October 5, 2005
