Now that it isn't playing in Nashville and that I've had the opportunity to really think about the movie, here's what I thought:
As a movie, it was good. As the director said in his talk while in Nashville, it could very easily have gone way overboard on satire and not been effective in challenging people to consider the continuing issue of race in America.
My questions for Kevin didn't really gel in my mind until the very end (when the Q&A portion was over, of course)—Wasn't all of this the fault of government intrusion into the personal lives of individuals? When does it become the responsibility of the state to make moral decisions? Should they be making moral decisions? Can a state even make moral decisions?
You say that we shouldn't be trying to impose our culture on other countries [this came out in a question about what was going on with American policy in the Middle East and how that paralleled with the film and its 'Tropical Empire' plans the Confederacy had] but as Vox Day pointed out over a week ago, where are those complaining that the British were wrong in ending the practice of widow burning in India?
You say the end of slavery was good but in the same breath say that we shouldn't 'export democracy' or our way of thinking/life to other countries and cultures. Should we not export the Western value that ALL types of slavery is bad? There seems to be a serious problem with sexual slavery across the globe. People might say that is a human value but you can't say since not all humans have the same values. Ted Bundy didn't value the lives of young women the same way, oh.. Mother Teresa did.
You are right in saying that when a prime field hand was worth the equivalent of a luxury car. When the government attempted to take individuals luxury cars, there was going to be a fight. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore. There is no fight. By sucking the taxes out before we get our pay checks, people don't think about it. That money was never theres. Yes it was. You earned it. It should be yours.
(Side rant: I love DC's comment that the IRS is like the mafia.. except that the mafia tells you how much you owe them up front. The IRS gives you forms, makes you fill it out and if you do it wrong, they will beat you up. People who think that they still own their property ought to not pay their property tax... see how long they own their property then.)
Other things that I took away from the screening: a room full of white guilt mixed with the anger of black people. One woman admitted that after seeing the movie that for the first time she wanted to beat up some white folk. Several white folks got up and stated that they felt guilty for what happened. I was probably one of the few people in the room completely indifferent to the whole white guilt tidal wave.
I didn't do anything to cause slavery, Jim Crow laws, or the like. Therefore, I have no reason to be or feel guilty over something that happened in the past. The only thing I can control is my attitude and response - now.
Also, as a Christian, guilt and shame can become tools of the enemy to trap us and hold us down. How many people do you know that are held hostage by guilt over something?
Don't mistake this for being cavalier about it. I'm not. Yes, there are racial issues that need to be addressed.
I applaud the director for also saying that liberals are just as much at fault for covering everything up with politically correct language that the lingering hurts, pain, continuing discrimination cannot be openly and honestly dealt with.
