There are a number of movies and TV series out there that suggest a lot of other countries are beginning to imagine a world where the left and the
Randroids Ronulans win the foreign policy debate. I've mentioned
Tomorrow, When the War Begins about sort of
Red Dawn teenagers fighting against a Chinese invasion of Australia. Right now I am watching a 2015 Norwegian TV series titled
Occupied, set in a near future where the U.S. has withdrawn from NATO, a series of floods have caused Norwegians to elect a Greenish party that is (here you have to suspend your disbelief for a moment, because no environmentalist would do this) decides to promote a future built around
thorium-based nuclear power, and shuts down oil & gas production, leading to crisis for the rest of the EU. The Russians obligingly assist the EU by occupying the Norwegian production facilities, kidnapping the Norwegian PM, and telling him to go along to save lives that would be lost in fighting the Russians. The rest of the series so far involves an increasingly accommodating Norwegian government suddenly having to deal with Norwegians fighting back against the Russians and all the drama of political infighting, journalists trying to tell the truth, and the head of the security service secretly helping the Free Noway movement. Of course, the movement starts to look frighteningly (to a liberal) like what will happen if Obama decides not to leave office next January. It's a very intelligently done series which reminds us of how many people don't seem to buy the "the EU is our friend" crap.
The Russians aren't happy with Occupied; but after the Ukraine, so what?
UPDATE: It is also very well done and even with subtitles not a struggle, perhaps because Norwegian is similar enough to German for me to catch some words, and English being the only language the Norwegians share with the Russians and the EU bureaucrats, much of the dialog is in English. I notice also that Norwegian has adopted "Okay."
UPDATE 2: The whole first season without one mention of
Vidkun Quisling. Pretty clearly, the left, not Ronulans have taken over the U.S.; the U.S. ambassador to Norway clearly has a "partner."
I'm having a bit of a 'WTF' moment at you putting the left and the "Randroids" into the same foreign policy bucket. Have you actually read any Objectivist foreign policy analysis, like Peter Schwartz' _The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest_ or Elan Journo's _Winning the Unwinnable War_, or the foreign policy posts on the Ayn Rand Institute blog?
ReplyDeleteThe blog currently has entries with titles like "Ignoring the Islamist Menace", "San Bernardino and the Metastasizing Jihad" and "Behind the Paris Atrocity, An Enemy We Fail to Understand". Whether you agree with their views or not, they bear little resemblance to the foreign policy positions of the left.
https://ari.aynrand.org/blog/category/Foreign-Policy
Don't confuse the Objectivists with the libertarians. Libertarian foreign policy does share a lot with the left, which is one of the many reasons why Objectivists like me do not consider ourselves libertarians.
By Randroids I refer to Ron Paul and friends who share much with the left. I had forgotten that Objectivists aren't quite lockstep with Libertarians.
ReplyDeleteWhen I want a slur for the Ron Paul types I usually go for "Ronulans", or sometimes "Paulistinians". It has the benefit of accuracy. "Randroid" is generally used as a slur for doctrinaire Objectivists, and they're very much not on the same page as libertarians.
ReplyDelete