Conservatives: American Gangsters

I’ve been surprised to hear so much about a movie on the talk radio programs. They don’t usually talk about movies, why this one? They are less than happy about the fact that there are some “negative social messages” in the movie American Gangster. The “negative social message” is that the bad guy gets off in the end. His lifestyle is glamorized. How dare those Hollywood liberals glamorize such a bad, bad man!

Interestingly, this movie takes a man who is a capitalist and glorifies him. He is unapologetically looking for a way to make sure “no one owns him” and he makes reference to macro-economic principles in his business speak. For example, he tells another character about how “there is a demand for his product and he can deliver it to people at a higher quality and lower price than his competitors.” But what’s wrong with that? Sounds like good ol’ capitalism to me!

“But wait,” you say “He’s damaging our communities by delivering his harmful substance to our children and neighbors!” I retort, “Ah, but I’m a good red-blooded American capitalist who believes that if the market demands it, it must be good.” I mean after all, we don’t want government getting in the way of private enterprise do we? The supply must meet the demand.

Why should the same conservatives who are not happy with the social message of American Gangster continue to bemoan the government intervention? Is it because they don’t recognize that economics are tied to social problems? Yes, probably. They’d much rather attempt to wax philosophically about human nature and that there’s something wrong with poor people inherently which makes them poor. Or maybe the conservatives don’t recognize Denzel’s character as the prototype of the American (free-market) Capitalist? Definitely.

I’m not in favor of keeping drugs illegal any more than prostitution or any other activity that people want to do on their own. What I am in favor of is limiting activities that affect others such as driving or piloting while under the influence, violent crimes, stealing, vandalism, etc. Economics is a social force, not an individual one and its effects are felt throughout society, hence, the new deal, unions, and the entire high liberal tradition.

Conservatives complain about the effects of capitalism, while they simultaneously prate on about how “the market” should decide this or that. Unfortunately, “the market” keeps gangsters in business… and business is good. If only the conservatives could see that many of our gangsters today wear suits, live in the same uptight suburbanite communities as the rest of us, and propagate the false notion that there is something to them that can be called “American” in the first place.