X-Tra Rant Taking Myself Way Too Seriously Since 1999

It’s Not Red Dawn: The Series

Yet another entry in a long line of conservative paranoia and application of their own.. particular... world view to popular culture. CJ has been particularly interested in this topic.

But this one, oh boy does it take the cake. Jericho is a show that I've been really digging. I've always been a fan of post apocalyptic style stories, especially about survival and how a society changes after an event like that. But apparently to some people, the commies have taken over Jericho.

I was turned onto CBS’s new series Jericho by a friend who really liked the premise and said I should check it out.
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That’s back when this was a show about the struggle for survival in post-nuclear America. Real middle-Americans the people who pull themselves up by their bootstraps every day and make this country work. When the rest of the country is gone, they keep doing it.
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The people of Jericho didn’t wait for FEMA, they worked harder, despite a lack of electricity, an external food supply and any other lack of modern conveniences. They came together, showed that American spirit, ingenuity and resolve to survive.

Basically, real Americans doing real American work.

Ahhhhh the good old "real Americans" meme. See, only "real Americans" keep working under dire curcumstances. The only "real Americans" are those Americans in the middle of the nation - those real American red-staters. Last I checked, an American is an American, even if you live in Massachusetts or California. And last I checked, even those blue state urbanites can pull together in the toughest of times. Try telling a New Yorker "Real middle-Americans the people who pull themselves up by their bootstraps every day and make this country work."

Oh but this is pure sanity compared to what's next....

Then came the winter season break.

Jericho returned in February, but something had changed. Subtly but, like clockwork each episode has featured at least one left-leaning ideal.

First there was the idea that life is better without fossil fuel. One character suggested that windmills would be able to provide electricity for the town. Yes this may seem like splitting hairs when it comes to the plot of the show. Without a gasoline supply to power the town’s generator finding an alternative energy supply. However it was her exact words that when taken out of context of the show repeat those of anti-carbon environmentalists. “If we had working windmills we wouldn’t have rely on diesel at all.” Of course the more anti-energy environmentalist would complain that birds get caught up in windmills; however that’s a tangent we will not follow. More on windmills follows.

The lefties are coming the lefties are coming!! Hide the chilluns! IT'S THE REDDDDDDDS!

I'm really trying to understand how anyone can read into the windmill storying an anti-fossil fuel message. See... they have no gas. They need the windmill to survive, see. The author of this post himself says "when taken out of context." Hell, I could take 75% of popular culture out of context to twist it into any message I want. Just saying, well.. see.. out of context this is an environmentalist's sentence.. therefore LEFTISTS!!!!

It's pretty obvious to me, and anyone not coming into their viewing of popular culture, that in or out of context what is meant is that they won't have to rely on diesel and this is a good thing because THEY DON'T HAVE ANYMORE. The paranoid reading of 'leftist' messages into anything and everything is really somewhat sad. Oh, but it doesn't end there.

A week later when our heroes had ventured to a trading post area they received their first news from the outside world. Among the news items: Mexico had closed its borders and was no longer allowing US Citizens in. On the surface this is a role reversal to show Americans how the policy of protecting their own borders can be unfair. If one looks at the situation deeper they realize that Mexico Immigration laws are such that their borders are virtually closed already. However the real flaw in this story element is that the writers believe that Americans run from adversity. American’s don’t run from danger. They run to, and face it head on. My own great-uncle, upon hearing of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, left the mill he was working in to enlist in the Marines. After 9/11 countless stories could be shared of young men and women who were willing to go to war (an inevitability) at the tender ages of 18, 19 and so forth.

Ahhhh more "real americans" and how the show is "obviously" making a statement about the reversal of the border issue. it really takes a special brand of paranoia to see a bit of text in the background as some sort of heinous leftist message.

But as for the "real flaw" in the story element, this whole idea that Americans don't run from adversity and so there would be no refugee after a nuclear strike on multiple American urban centers. Not only that, this isn't about people "running from Adversity." Think of the issues around multiple nuclear strikes - fallout, radiation, the coming winter and no power, lack of food, etc etc. Not only that - given the way the story is unfolded with massive amounts of unrest between (and even in) towns and outside the affected cities there may not be anyplace to run to.

Ahhhh but it goes on. Back to the windmills and now we get a "lesson" in economics!

When the first working windmill arrives from the next town over an agreement is made that leads to a deal for a number of subsequent windmills. The deal is ten percent of Jericho’s spring crop for ten windmills. The new mayor of Jericho says this is unfair but reluctantly agrees. The first thing you learn in any economics class is that voluntary transactions are mutually beneficial. Since one party wanted windmills and the other party wanted food this seems to work out. We know there are other towns out there, most likely with other resources available to share. This means potentially more mutually beneficial transactions. Here we are being told that if someone is trying to sell you something you’re being screwed. If all purveyors of goods adopted this attitude there would be no more customers.

So apparently ANY trasaction is mutually beneficial, even if a gun is practically being held to your head. Jericho was basically given the choice: give up a share of your crop that could very well mean starvation in the fall or freeze to death. And later episodes where it is shown that New Bern is obviously arming for conflict against Jericho and it makes the mayor's uneasiness at striking a deal with them pretty prescient.

As for the "economics lesson", yes, a voluntary transaction is mutually beneficial. But that's assuming this transaction was really voluntary. when you have no have no choice in the matter (i.e. facing starvation) it's hard to argue the deal was voluntary. And just because they said that 10% was unfair doesn't mean this was some sort of commie leftist message. Although I can see how a person might see that if their whole worldview is one of "the commie leftists hate the market."

Oh but damn, the crazy train keeps rolling.

In what would be the most far-reaching and absurd case of leftist ideology in the series we find that the mastermind of the multiple city nuclear attack is none other than the director of homeland security. While his motivation is still a mystery, this is a fairly unbelievable plot twist. The director of homeland security’s primary mission is to NOT allow terrorist attacks on American soil. But even deeper this is a position created by the Patriot Act, that little piece of legislation that allows law enforcement to protect American citizens from attacks within our country. This has been a bane in the existence of liberals for some time. Any attempt to delegitimize or vilify this law is part of the American left’s attempt to change the minds of voters. Even if it is done through the prism of a moderately-rated fictional TV drama.

Wuhhhuhhhhhhh? And in Spiderman 3 where Peter Parker/Spiderman is shown to be vulnerable to his dark side only enables The Green Goblin. Any attempt to deligitimize or vilify Spiderman is part of the right's attempt to change the mind of comic book readers.

This is seriously one of the most rediculous arguments I have ever read. IT'S A TV SHOW! FICTION! fic tion al char ac ters* This idea that it's some insidious liberal plot to subtly change the minds of voters through a weekly television drama is the height of conservative myopia and paranoia.

It's like the author wanted Red Dawn: The Series and instead got a show that challenges you and maybe makes you think about things in a way that makes you uncomfortable (the hallmark of good drama, by the way). Where's Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen when you need them?

One of these things is not like the other

*name that movie

Update: Last minute thought. If you really want to read political messages into the show: Which town, New Bern or Jericho, is more like the conservative's answer to tough times and a state of war, and which is more like the liberal's vision? I'll give you a hint - one of them as suspended civil rights, a militarized society, uses torture, imprisons people indefinitely and is willing to engage in preemptive hostilities to take the resources it needs and fight threats it perceives without proof. I'll leave the rest of the answer as an exercise for the reader.