Discarding the Crown

"In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born: that they are not superior to the citizen: that every one of them was once the act of a single man: every law and usage was a man's expedient to meet a particular case: that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may make as good; we may make better."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Politics"

"Let us remember then, in the first place, that political institutions (however the proposition may be at times ignored) are the work of men; owe their origin and their whole existence to human will. Men did not wake on a summer morning and find them sprung up."

~ John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government

Ridley Scott's Gladiator is an exquisite film with many attractive features: the imperial subversion of republicanism, a martial protagonist with immense delicacy, the indelible introductory tracking shot. Of greatest significance, however, is its portrayal of political contingency.

The most pregnant scene in Gladiator occurs when Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) battles Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) in the Colosseum, encircled by Praetorian Guards. Although Commodus has wounded Maximus (while enchained) beforehand, the craven emperor still cannot prevail. Maximus slices Commodus's arm and he drops his sword. This pivotal sequence follows:

COMMODUS: Quintus, sword!

(Quintus does not respond.)

COMMODUS: Give me your sword!

(Quintus does not respond.)

COMMODUS: (To the Praetorians.) Sword! Give me a sword!

(They unsheathe their swords.)

QUINTUS: Sheathe your swords! Sheathe your swords!

(They sheathe their swords.)

Delegitimization has just occurred. All of Caesar's regal eminence is gone from nothing more than an alteration in perception.

In this vein, Gladiator is a Humean film insofar as it instantiates the observation of that great philosopher, "'Tis, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded, and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments as well as to the free and most popular." (I would qualify this only to say that in a regime where individuals are cut off from arms, the opinion determinative of political durability lies with those possessing arms, namely the military. An unarmed throng may protest a regime all they like, but a coterie with machine guns and grenades has the tyrannical luxury of indifference to their lack of consent. Hence, it's not coincidental that the Praetorians follow the order of Quintus, their immediate commander.)

It's commonplace to perceive the State as an august entity to which a populace must yield. (Hegel went so far as to declare the State a secular deity.) If the President initiates war without congressional approval, he must know what he's doing since he's the President; if Congress guts a proprietor's commercial discretion, our representatives must have our national interest at heart; if the Supreme Court says Nebraska cannot prohibit infanticide (Stenberg v. Carhart), the sagacious justices must be right. Gladiator shows us this inurement need not be. The State is not a metaphysical phenomenon but a terrestrial contrivance.

Gladiator won five Academy Awards on Sunday including Best Picture and is part of American cultural vocabulary. As in another context and to a lesser extent with Traffic, we have an opportunity to promote freedom within a popular framework. Let's capitalize on this convergence of culture and cause.

March 27, 2001

Myles Kantor lives in Boynton Beach, Florida.

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