What made you decide war (the Iraq war or all wars) was wrong? What made you decide politics was government for the people rather than people for the institutions? What made you a progressive, a liberal, a Democrat? How would you convey that to others who don't have any history to ground themselves on?
What movies or books or any other teaching material can we recommend to those who have no historical reference to previous wars or political overviews, to those who have believed the Bush administration's propaganda?
In comments, Steve Bates of The Yellow Doggerel Democrat mentioned this:
...I engaged today in a polite debate with ReaganConservative (one of my regular commenters, emphatically not a troll, a GOPer who has come to distrust Bush) about Snow's expressed analogy between Iraq and the Koreas that left us all drop-jawed yesterday. I found that RC was himself young enough to have had no direct or parental connection with W.W. II, and hence no real understanding of Germany's Nazis and what they did.I want to collect a list of movies, books and anything else that is not daunting for an easily distracted generation. We are awash with information, so to find items with the clearest message will be hard.
Our educational task is tougher than at first I imagined: first we have to get younger folks to understand what happened; only then can we urge them to avoid it. American aversion to tyranny is not, after all, inborn.
An example: my husband watches WWII movies where captured American soldiers cite the Geneva Convention. And I think: that won't work anymore thanks to Bush. Torture? We are now the bad guys. Disappearing people? We do that, too.
What items would you recommend to people that would teach them why the Bush administration's actions have been so egregious?
Movies I have seen off of Wikipedia's list of anti-war films:
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Coming Home (1978)
Das Boot (1981)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
Gallipoli (1981)
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Lord of War (2005)
M*A*S*H (1970)
On the Beach (1957)
Platoon (1986)
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Schindler's List (1993)
Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Two Women (1960)
From the Amazon list:
Born on the Fourth of July
Wag the Dog
The English Patient
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's list:
Breaker Morant
Cold Mountain
Gandhi
King of Hearts
Books I have read from Wikipedia's list of anti-war books:
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
Lysistrata
On the Beach - by Nevil Shute
The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
The War Prayer - Mark Twain
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's list:
A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway
Hiroshima (1946)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1947) by Anne Frank
War and Peace (1869)
For the best of what politics and governments could be:
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
Any of the early West Wing tv series.
Dave
The American President
For the worst or how to fight it:
All The President's Men
For showing the best of human nature:
To Kill a Mockingbird (book and movie)
These are just pulled from lists or from my memory. I know there are more. What ones would you recommend?
Update: from comments here:
Phila: Walt Kelley's "Pogo"
Philip K. Dick (especially his story "Human Is")
Simone Weil's "The Poem of Force" and "Reflections on War"
Marilynne Robinson's "Mother Country"
As far as movies go, "Forbidden Games"
Tengrain:
Pacifica Radio was pre-set on my very first new car and never was turned off, Gore Vidal, and A Peoples History of the US (Howard Zinn)
Morse: Vietnam War, Watergate, Christian Fundamentalism, Reagan.
As for books and media, "All the President's Men", is the one I remember most clearly. Like Tengrain (again, dammit) I discovered Howard Zinn, and it all clicked.
Whig:
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! trilogy, Douglas Hofstadter's article, "Dilemmas for superrational thinkers" in his book Metamagical Themas, Albert Jay Nock, Philip K. Dick, Philip Jose Farmer.
Music: especially Peter Gabriel. He is the conscience of the world when he focuses his attention on injustice.
4 comments:
Walt Kelley's "Pogo"
Philip K. Dick (especially his story "Human Is")
Simone Weil's "The Poem of Force" and "Reflections on War"
Marilynne Robinson's "Mother Country"
As far as movies go, "Forbidden Games" would probably be at the top of the list. Made a huge impression on me as a child.
I was raised by old-school GOP lawyers (parents too, I guess) who were depression-era children and came of age during WW2. By all rights and means I should have been a GOPer myself, and this is a discussion that comes up frequently with my GOP siblings (now that Mom and Dad have gone to their reward).
I can think of a few influences right off: Pacifica Radio was pre-set on my very first new car and never was turned off, Gore Vidal, and A Peoples History of the US.
I listened to Pacifica and was always surprised by the news and what I learned that never seemed to match the MSM -- and that news would sometimes make its way to the front page, weeks, months, or years later.
As for Gore (I'm on a first name basis with him, but he doesn't know that), I picked up one of his historical fiction novels in paperback during a vacation -- you know for beach reading, and it was history like I have never heard it before. I soon read his entire oevre including his plays and other scripts.
At some point I found A Peoples History of the US (Howard Zinn) -- and it was another moment of clarity. I was never taught any of this stuff in history class.
At any rate, I came late to critical thinking, but these three resources showed me the way. I highly recommend them.
Regards,
Tengrain
Like Tengrain, it was primarily my parents, but also the filth of the Vietnam war, which was raging during my childhood. I accompanied my parents to several funerals for slain soldiers, and that leaves an impression on you. Watergate certainly influenced my thinking. We actually watched the hearings in my eighth grade classroom. Finally it was the stench of fundamental Christianity, in which I was raised. I finally saw the light, and it was an exit sign.
Reagan was a huge obstacle to react against, and when the Republicans cut NEA funding for artists, I couldn't tolerate it anymore.
As for books and media, "All the President's Men", is the one I remember most clearly. Like Tengrain (again, dammit) I discovered Howard Zinn, and it all clicked.
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! trilogy, Douglas Hofstadter's article, "Dilemmas for superrational thinkers" in his book Metamagical Themas, Albert Jay Nock, Philip K. Dick, Philip Jose Farmer.
Music: especially Peter Gabriel. He is the conscience of the world when he focuses his attention on injustice.
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