Film: "The Manchurian Candidate”

Paramount, 2004

An interesting film that looks at the control that big business has over the state of the United States. Though it exaggerates for cinematic flair, the entire film echoes strangely true:

• Large corporations and lobbyists are able to exert amazing amounts of influence over our politicians and the democratic process.
• Our politicians can have underhanded motivations for the things they do; some to unimaginable and illegal lengths.
• Our military personnel, though serving through many hardships, are often put in the middle of political situations, and come out the worse for wear.
• Our soldiers are used as guinea pigs for many new products, programs and ideas.
• Political spindoctoring is a danger to freedom, information, and the values we hold dear.
• Politicians are finding it ever easier to say ‘look what he did!’ to draw attention away from their own actions.

Though it is a work of fiction, I think that watching this film with an open mind and the thought of ‘what if?’ brings a little deeper realization of the undercurrents within our society, it politics and leaders. Especially in the face of the constant flow of scandals, under-the-table deals, crooked investments, and ‘quid-pro-quo’ revealed in the media seemingly daily. It works the same as a restaurant; if the dining room is dirty, and that’s what you see all the time, do you really think the kitchen is any better? If the parts of our political system that we see are so ‘dirty’, what do the part we don’t see look like? What other cockroaches, dead rats, and dirty grease traps are hiding out there? It’s a scary idea, and one that I think every person who cares about our nation needs to take the time to look at. The ultimate question – why do we allow it? Dirt CAN be cleaned away, but it takes a determined amount of elbow grease! In a country ‘of the people, for the people’ why do we allow these infractions, and why are politicians so rarely held accountable for their behaviors? Food for thought.