We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
|
Samizdata quote of the day Comrades!
I am terrored! A film has just arrived on the markets of Cameroon, this film the American Police Team or some name that is similar. My nephew, purchased this and asked me to watch because he said is had something to do with DPRK. The shock I see! The general, beloved general, Kim Jong Il is a puppet character in this film and speaking the most offending things! He swears in English, kills his interpreter, and turns into a small insect at the end. They make the Dear Leader to be evil man, and lonely man. They find risible the undying love of the Korean people? They think the leadership of DPRK and the revolution is a joke? Forgive me for saying but makers of this film are bastard people! I denounce them and curse them! Bastard people!
Can we not complain to someone about such slander? Why has not the KCNA denounced this piece of capitalist propaganda? To think that they make light of the general and debase his greatness!
Angered
– J Nelson reacting to this – thank you Mark Holland
|
Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
|
While I can understand the basis of your anger about the film, I feel I must also point out that it was a work of Satire, though perhaps not as in the tradition of Joanthan Swift, or Alexander Pope. Yes, Kim Jon Il is much maligned in the film, that much is obvious. The film also takes shots at Michael Moore, the Film Actors Guild, The American Foreign Policy, or what it is percieved to be, and a plethora of other figures. While I in no way agree with the Swiftian picture the film presents, I would point out that it is just a movie, albeit a horrible one that probably never should have been made.
I wasn’t expecting to like Team America much (only saw it a couple of weeks ago and I’ve never much cared for South Park). Imagine my surprise, it quickly became one of my favorite films of the last few years.
And the main point of the movie is not political satire (tho there’s some of that too) but film satire (specifically the genre of action movies, which have become more formulaic and predictable than your typical Bollywood product).
Still, I love the idea of people taking its portrayal of Kim Jong Il seriously and getting upset about it.
What surprised me about it was the rerative rack of poriticar satire.
A wercome dig at Hans Brix and Michaew Moore, but just as much at gung-ho war supporters too, and otherwise quite squarery aimed at Horrywood, not poriticians.
And eye-wateringry funny armost arr the way through.
Please Brian, give the inestimable Rob Hinkely the glory. He’s the brave soul who ferrets these loonies out.
Pete, you probably know this already, but Trey Parker, the brains behind Team America and the voice behind most of its characters, is openly libertarian and there are interviews with him (sorry, can’t provide links right now) in which he makes it clear that his sympathies lie with the Team America world view, however engagingly he sends them up.
Got to love the korea-dpr forum.
They seem so ronery.
Mr Jacob, I think you may have misunderstood the motivations of Mr Micklethwait in posting this piece.
Just a quick question, does anybody love the expression “I am terrored,” as much as I do? I can’t wait for chances to use it.
Tim, you’re quite right. This much is made clear in the film’s dicks, pussies and assholes speech. Whenever I meet a leftie who loves the film because of its send-up of US foreign policy, I always enjoy pointing out to them who the real villains of the film are, a point they somehow seem to miss.
More on topic: I’m quite taken aback by this korea-dpr forum. I knew on an abstract level there were loony communists in the West but it’s still quite shocking to read people from the UK and Canada in all seriousness calling each other “comrade”.
Anyone of any political bent who takes any political vindication from Team America has some serious reality issues.
But the funniest targets aren’t political, but aesthetic:
“Without an actor, they were like pigs to the slaughter”
“I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school …”
“You need a montage …”