A recent article on National Review by Mona Charen and comments from my friend Karma (no, not the metaphysical concept, she’s really a friend of mine) got me to thinking again. Strangely enough, this time about the Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe it’s got something to do with the Somali pirates taking a Saudi oil tanker too — which gets me thinking about something else altogether.

Anyway, Mona Charen reviewed the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. Apparently she didn’t think it was that good. One of the things she didn’t like about it was the portrayal of the C.I.A., which she pointed out was really a veiled portrayal of Hollywood’s attitude about the United States. Apparently if there’s some evil immoral thing that can be done by a right wing administration, it’s going to find its way into a movie, and the C.I.A. or some other American agency will be helping it along. The fact that thousands of movies coming from Hollywood carry this theme just might have something to do with the way the world perceives us.

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are based on the theme park ride of the same name. The first one’s a ghost story of sorts, and they all three move into the realm of myths and the supernatural in one way or another, but they’re really about the relationship between Elizabeth Swan, the daughter of the governor of Port Royal and William Turner, the boy she rescued from the sea, grown into a blacksmith’s apprentice and son of a Pirate. And in the end, they’re full of a lot of Hollywood’s attitudes towards quite a few interesting things.

The first movie is a good example. The movie opens with a young Elizabeth Swan looking out over the sea from shipboard and singing a song about pirates. She spots a boy adrift in the waters and he’s rescued. When she finds he has a golden medallion with a skull on it she concludes he must be a pirate — and steals it. Apparently honesty isn’t one of the things that’s cherished in Hollywood.

When captain Jack arrives on the scene we are treated to a dishonest port official who accepts a bribe — only to have his purse stolen. Almost immediately we meet two bumbling, gullible soldiers meant to be guarding the docks. It’s not a very good reflection on the common soldier, and by the end of the third movie these men are pirates as well.

Will Turner turns out to be quite an accomplished swordsmith.  But his master is a fat slob of a drunkard that takes credit for all of his accomplishments. Hollywood seems to have a disdain for bosses — they’re always incompetent and the people that work for them always seem to have an instinctive knowledge that puts them to shame. It leaves me wondering though — where did Turner learn his skills? Crafting swords is an art that requires a lot more than simply the ability to beat hot metal with a hammer.

Governor Swan is a well meaning bumbler. Norrington is arrogant, obsessed with duty, and full of disdain for the common man. Hollywood doesn’t seem to big on authority in general.

Throughout the movies we’re given examples of the baseness and treachery that pervades the pirate’s lives. Yet somehow the pirates end up being the heroes. This is of course because Will Turner is the hero of the tale, but he turns out to be just as much a pirate as the next man in the end, using treachery and villainy to achieve his own ends. Apparently Hollywood would have us believe that noble ends can be served well by ignoble means.

In the second movie we’re introduced to an example of one of Hollywood’s most hated villains — big business or international corporate giants, in the form of the East India Trading Company, as personified by Lord Cutler Beckett. Beckett wants control of the seas, and he’ll engage in treachery and twist the authority of the English crown to get it. In the end (of the third movie), our heroes defeat him and he dies in a daze muttering “It’s just good business.” In fact we can see the contempt with which Hollywood views capitalism and “good business” in this line from Lord Beckett…

“He actually expects us to honor our agreement. Nothing personal, Jack…it’s just good business.”

Apparently Hollywood wants us to have the impression that in order to be successful in “good business” we must be duplicitous betrayers who don’t honor our agreements.

One of the biggest reasons for the popularity of these movies might be the independent spirit shown by the protagonists. The protagonists are pursuing their own happiness, and doing so with gusto, bravery and ingenuity, fighting against the evils of the established order.

My problem is, that the established order isn’t the problem. It’s individuals that exploit the weaknesses in the established order and twist it from its intent to their own purposes. The movies do point at individuals as the evildoers, but they condemn the institutions that these individuals exploit. At the same time, they applaud immoral actions provided that the end is noble.

These movies are popular. They’re popular because they’re fun to watch with lots of action and humor, although like much that Hollywood produces they’re full of upside down attitudes as well as sexual innuendo. They romanticize roguery, dishonesty, and rebellion — provided that the scoundrels that practice them are intelligent and lucky enough to get away with it. They demonize and disparage authority figures and encourage discontent with our lot in life — discontent that can be turned into activism. They focus on the worst aspects of our culture and uplift them.

Remember that oil tanker I mentioned a bit ago and the Somali pirates? Well, something else I heard (I think it was Rush that said it), got me to thinking about military force and the many crazy things going on in the world. Allegedly we’re the only military superpower out there. Anyway, we’re not the major military force in the Western world because of imperialist ideas, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the neo-cons either. Rather, we’re one of the only major military powers because the rest of the Western world seems to have decided that self defense isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Think about it. Spain used to have one of the world’s great navies. Where is their navy today? For that matter, where are the navies of France and Great Britain? So if Somali pirates attack their shipping in the Gulf, who’s going to do anything about it? What are the Saudi’s going to do about it since it’s their tanker that was captured? If I recall correctly, they don’t even have a navy.

It appears that the motives of the pirates aren’t the capture of the plunder, but rather the extortion of ransoms from the rightful owners of it. Within our societies we don’t approve of such actions and we engage police to stop them, courts to condemn them, and our administration to enforce the condemnation through imprisonment or if the crimes are heinous enough through capital punishment.

There was a time that piracy carried a death sentence for all pirates. Nations used their navies to capture and destroy pirate vessels.

These days, much of the west has apparently decided that not much is worth defending. They’ve gutted their defense forces, and rely upon the strength of others (the U.S. in particular) to protect them. When we (the U.S.) do step in to protect them we’re condemned for it.

This is foolishness. The world has always been a dangerous place. Appeasement doesn’t work. Successful pirates that obtain the ransoms they demand will be encouraged to continue their piracy. Nations that don’t defend their citizens and their citizen’s property from such villainy have abdicated their responsibility.

The United States is not the world’s police force. We cannot be the protector of everyone’s interests but our own. Perhaps it’s time we pulled out of some of our international agreements, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the nations of Europe. After all, if you’re big brother is always around to protect you, why bother learning to defend yourself?

Perhaps it’s time that Europe defended itself. Maybe then they’d discover that we’re not all that bad in the first place…

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