I read the "Vice" script and watched the screener. I enjoyed it overall, but I was annoyed. The irreverent 'cool guy' style of filmmaking undercut the horror wrought by Cheney Inc. The media likes to portray ppl like Cheney and Steve Bannon as brilliantly evil. But these are men in love with the black leather coat image of being satan. The real thing that Cheney projected was the catastrophic effects of white male mediocrity run amuck. The former VP was incredibly incompetent and was so lacking in knowing how cultures/ppl/trends worked that he didn't realize how stupid he was. To quote Rumsfeld, he didn't know what he didn't know. But being a white male allowed Cheney to inoculate himself from his incompetence by being smugly ignorant as the world caught on fire around him. You can draw a direct line from Cheney's sheer idiocy and how it leads to the death of millions of Iraqis, societal upheaval in the most volatile region in the world, and financial costs we are still paying for today. Despite all their greed and lust for power, they squandered it because they lacked insight and critical thinking.
According to Buddhist scripture, that is the real tragedy in being criminal like Cheney: to have the karma to be a crook usually means you also have the karma to be a fucking idiot. It is very hard to be devilishly smart and...the devil. Being evil and/or a criminal usually starts at an early age and it also stunts intellectual growth. It's why burglars tend to be stupid. Hollywood, though, loves a master villain. And so we pretend like Cheney got by on his smarts, instead of the real truth: white dirtbags take advantage of an entire system that protects them from the consequences of their actions. This system terrorizes others while encouraging their immoral bad behavior. Instead of master villains and heroes, we just have a steady series of getaway car drivers who think they planned the grand heist. But Cheney and Co were just the easiest tools for a crooked system. In some way, a movie that aimed at the blustering incompetence of Cheney would be a lot more devastating than lifting him up as this mythical figure. A movie that really addressed the pathetic inadequacy of men like him would be a lot more subversive because it would also indict the mediocrity of Hollywood, Wall Street, and an entire subculture of ppl who have been blinded to their own stunted growth.
In doubling down on the cool villain, "Vice" misses the entire point of the Bush/Cheney administration: stupid hurts. Stupid is more dangerous than evil, and often more devastating on humanity. And stupidity will be the end of us.
Look, the entire basis for the Iraq War was a lie created to profit off of a terror attack. This terror attack happened primarily through the incompetence of a Bush administration ignoring the signs and allowing Bin Laden's Saudi attackers to stroll in and kill thousands. The Clinton administration warned of this attack. In fact, during the Clinton years, several mass attacks were stopped by the diligent work of intelligence officers. These same officers had the responsibility of passing on tips for the future administration. These tips included creating a Homeland Security Dept, not trusting Saudi Arabia, paying attention to Al Qaeda. Bush administration took all those plans on January 2001...and threw them in the trash. Fuck the Dems! We're going to do it our way. So they proceeded to ignore all the planning and warning signs out of smug incompetence.
9/11 happens and they're rocked. They dig out of the trash the previous administration, its suggestions, and claim them as their own. They invade a country on a false pretence. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 but it's not like there wasn't a plan to invade Iraq. The US State Dept had very detailed plans on Iraq...but Colin Powell was in charge of the State Dept, so Cheney and Rumsfeld said 'fuck that guy!' They but the Defense Dept in charge of rebuilding a country, setting up the currency, ensuring stability. Cheney appointed oil industry lackies who botched everything up, helped create ISIS. The Pandora's box they opened has not even been good for the US oil companies in the region. The Iraqi government turned against them.
So what was gained for all the blood and toil? Not treasure. The only thing acquired was the illusion of dominance.
According to Buddhist scripture, that is the real tragedy in being criminal like Cheney: to have the karma to be a crook usually means you also have the karma to be a fucking idiot. It is very hard to be devilishly smart and...the devil. Being evil and/or a criminal usually starts at an early age and it also stunts intellectual growth. It's why burglars tend to be stupid. Hollywood, though, loves a master villain. And so we pretend like Cheney got by on his smarts, instead of the real truth: white dirtbags take advantage of an entire system that protects them from the consequences of their actions. This system terrorizes others while encouraging their immoral bad behavior. Instead of master villains and heroes, we just have a steady series of getaway car drivers who think they planned the grand heist. But Cheney and Co were just the easiest tools for a crooked system. In some way, a movie that aimed at the blustering incompetence of Cheney would be a lot more devastating than lifting him up as this mythical figure. A movie that really addressed the pathetic inadequacy of men like him would be a lot more subversive because it would also indict the mediocrity of Hollywood, Wall Street, and an entire subculture of ppl who have been blinded to their own stunted growth.
In doubling down on the cool villain, "Vice" misses the entire point of the Bush/Cheney administration: stupid hurts. Stupid is more dangerous than evil, and often more devastating on humanity. And stupidity will be the end of us.
Look, the entire basis for the Iraq War was a lie created to profit off of a terror attack. This terror attack happened primarily through the incompetence of a Bush administration ignoring the signs and allowing Bin Laden's Saudi attackers to stroll in and kill thousands. The Clinton administration warned of this attack. In fact, during the Clinton years, several mass attacks were stopped by the diligent work of intelligence officers. These same officers had the responsibility of passing on tips for the future administration. These tips included creating a Homeland Security Dept, not trusting Saudi Arabia, paying attention to Al Qaeda. Bush administration took all those plans on January 2001...and threw them in the trash. Fuck the Dems! We're going to do it our way. So they proceeded to ignore all the planning and warning signs out of smug incompetence.
9/11 happens and they're rocked. They dig out of the trash the previous administration, its suggestions, and claim them as their own. They invade a country on a false pretence. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 but it's not like there wasn't a plan to invade Iraq. The US State Dept had very detailed plans on Iraq...but Colin Powell was in charge of the State Dept, so Cheney and Rumsfeld said 'fuck that guy!' They but the Defense Dept in charge of rebuilding a country, setting up the currency, ensuring stability. Cheney appointed oil industry lackies who botched everything up, helped create ISIS. The Pandora's box they opened has not even been good for the US oil companies in the region. The Iraqi government turned against them.
So what was gained for all the blood and toil? Not treasure. The only thing acquired was the illusion of dominance.
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