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| Read the book, watch the movie. |
It’s always been puzzling to me that people hate America and
list all these evils we’ve done, some of which I have personal memory to
disregard, but some are supposedly the history that was glossed over in my
education.
The first two thirds of the movie specifically deal with
these accusations, or indictments, against America. I don’t know how D’Souza
accomplished it, but he spends a lot of time with spokespeople for the various
indictments, to give them latitude to express their point of view, without comment or
debate, just building their case. It’s kind of painful, because, sitting there,
you get the urge to defend. Only knowing who did the movie gives you the
patience to sit through this painful part.
Visually, with each of the indictments, he takes a symbol of
America and dissolves it—literally uses CGI to turn the symbol into tiny
particles that fall to smithereens. He does this with Mount Rushmore, the
Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty. I’m probably
missing some.
Then he takes the indictments, point by point, and gives a
different side. He doesn’t erase the accusations, but he does give perspective
that changes the sense of anger and shame to something much closer to “way to
go, America!”
It was dark in the theater, so I couldn’t take notes. I had
bought the book the day before (at Sam’s Club, as a statement against Costco,
which had temporarily taken the books off their shelves for obviously political
reasons, until the backlash shamed them into reordering the books—but in
fairness, I have a Sam’s membership because it is nearby, and don’t have a
Costco membership, because it’s a half hour drive). I had hoped, for the sake of this post, that the book would
be arranged in the same way as the movie. I haven’t read it yet, but a cursory
glance doesn’t give me that straightforward list of indictments. So I’ve probably missed
something (I think there were five or six), and won’t say them as well as the movie
does:
·
America stole the land from Native Americans.
·
America stole half of Mexico.
·
America earned its wealth on the backs of
slaves.
·
America has been imperialistic throughout the
world.
·
Capitalism steals from the poor.
D’Souza is surprisingly calm throughout the assault of
indictments. I guess that’s how he persuaded the haters to participate in his
movie. But they must have known he would go on to give the other side. Which he
does quite beautifully.
He identifies much of these indictments coming from a “history”
book written by Howard Zinn, A People’s
History of the United States. Early in the book D’Souza says,
This is probably the most influential history book of the
past half century. Zinn makes no effort to conceal his perspective. “I prefer
to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the
Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew
Jackson as seen by the Cherokees, of the Civil War as seen by the New York
Irish, of the Mexican war as seen by the deserting soldiers of Scott’s army, of
the rise of industrialism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile
mills, of the Spanish-American war as seen by the Cubans, the conquest of the Philippines
as seen by black soldiers on Luzon, the Gilded Age as seen by southern farmers,
the First World War as seen by socialists, the Second World War as seen by
pacifists, the New Deal as seen by blacks in Harlem, the postwar American empire
as seen by peons in Latin America.”
Zinn is not afraid to give a one-sided picture. He does not
believe there is such a thing as objective history; therefore, he wants to
present his side. And what is his
side? Zinn believes in global economic equality, looking forward, as he puts
it, to “a time when national boundaries are erased, when the riches of the
world are used for everyone.” (pp. 13-14).
Zinn wants worldwide socialism, with America totally out of
the picture. He wrote a “history” book as a persuasive tool toward that end. Zinn’s
book is widely used in high schools and colleges—as a text, not as supplemental
reading of a different point of view. But he isn’t a history scholar; he is a
man with an anti-American agenda, and he cherry-picks details to form
propaganda that will serve his ends. In the movie, D’Souza interviews a
historian, whose name unfortunately I don’ remember (and haven’t uncovered yet
in the book), who verifies that Zinn is not a historian; Zinn is content with
distorting facts and context, and even putting forth verifiable untruths as “facts.”
Zinn is nothing more than a public opinion manipulator--unfortunately a successful one.
An obvious point here is, if young people are being taught
Zinn’s America-is-guilty-of-great-evil theme, they’re being duped. And the lies
need to be laid bare, so we can see America clearly. [May I add here—this is
yet another reason to homeschool.]
The most beautiful part of the movie came at the conclusion
of the defense against the indictments. D’Souza debunks them point by point,
with evidence. And then, with that done, he “rebuilds” the symbols. From
disintegration, Mount Rushmore re-solidifies into reality, as do the Washington
Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Statue of Liberty and the rest. And we are so
relieved to see them as they are again.
Mr. Spherical Model suggests the movie, up to this point,
could easily be shown in schools, as a nonpolitical educational movie. I even
thought for a moment, while viewing the movie, that this was the end. It would
have been satisfying with just that much.
But then I remembered that the previews had suggested the
movie would talk about, “Obama didn’t create this movement; the movement created
him.” So there had to be more.
The remaining third of the movie answers the question, Why do
people choose to hate America? A stunning point in the movie comes during D’Souza’s
interview with America hating professor Ward Churchill. D’Souza asks him, if
America is indeed as guilty of the evils he claims, would it be “just” to
destroy America with a nuclear bomb. Churchill seems to be thinking through the
full line of his reasoning, and then concludes the answer is yes. He believes
America—even while he lives in it—should commit suicide.
The movie covers the plotting of Saul Alinsky, with his Rules for Radicals, including its
dedication to Lucifer. A young Hillary Rodham Clinton was introduced to Alinsky
and given his book as a gift. Her later contribution was to take his ideas, which
worked first to manipulate public opinion through community organizing, and
push them through politics, which she saw as a quicker means to the socialist
end. A young Obama was attracted to these radical socialist ideas, sought them
out, and then went to serve the cause in the central headquarters for idea
manipulation through community organizing: Chicago.
One of the interviewees is Stanley Kurtz, who wrote Radical in Chief, about Obama and his
connections to a long, interconnected list of these extremists. I wrote about the book, during the first month of this blog, back in 2011 (Part I, Part II, and Part III). I knew enough of the details in 2008 to know who Obama was. The
information is there, for anyone with eyes open and willing to see. But for
those who have kept themselves unaware, this portion of the movie is a pretty
clear indictment, especially following the first two-thirds of the movie.
It was kind of painful, however, to go on from the “We have
reason to love America” conclusion, and wade right into “We’re surrounded by
elected officials, media, and other powerful elites that are trying to destroy
the America we love.”
But we have to see the truth of where we are, diagnose it,
see it clearly—so we can take action to restore America after the decay.
God bless America! I pray that we can restore her.
Here’s one of the movie trailers:
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