Tony Blair, ex-PM...
by prudence on 26-Sep-2010
Here's another post about movies, which also happens to continue the Prudence tradition of blogging about former prime ministers.
Two movies. Enjoyed them both. Very different takes on politics.
The Ghost Writer is a thriller, inspired by recent past events, and figuring "Adam Lang" as a former British PM. A great watch, in my opinion, as it manages to be both suspenseful and funny, which is a difficult combo. Everyone's commented on the bleakness of the backgrounds, and indeed, the grey seas, grey skies, windswept beaches, and hideously minimalist smart grey house do all contribute to the looming quality of the story.
But politically, it's just another conspiracy theory. Influential Brits bought out from Day 1 by the shady CIA. So conveniently simple -- so THAT'S why the UK is always the US's poodle. Of COURSE -- we always suspected it, and now we know...
The Special Relationship is very different. It's a character study, so the interest hinges on the psychology rather than the action. This is a much more subtle investigation of two elements of the UK's devotion to the US. Ideologically, the two people who lead these bits of the Anglosphere often see it as their mission to put the world to rights (Walter Russell Mead's God and Gold is interesting on this topic). And personally, they occasionally "click" on a personal level (here it's Blair and Clinton, but Thatcher and Reagan make another obvious example).
Ah, the late 1990s -- when we were all talking about new norms for humanitarian intervention. No more Bosnias; no more Rwandas. With Bill and Tony in tandem, we could save the world.
Well, this movie is a good reminder of what can go wrong in the process. (One such snafu -- the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade -- didn't actually get a mention.)
But beyond the Clinton-Blair dynamic, we get more of an insight into what made Blair tick.
Chillingly, all the language that was to figure so heavily in his backing of the Iraq invasion under Bush -- the event that knocked ideas of "humanitarian intervention" right back off the table -- was already tripping fluently off Blair's tongue. Good versus evil, a neat dividing up of the world into the nice guys and the nasty ones -- how could it even be possible that the good guys would not band together to get rid of the bad ones?
And so we ended up with Iraq. Blair backing a horribly one-eyed US coterie of idealistic US nationalists. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost and ruined, massively increased power handed on a plate to Iran, US world approval ratings at record lows, the Afghanistan campaign neglected, and so on -- almost ad infinitum.
I have no doubt Blair meant well. I have no doubt he was full of good intentions. But this movie makes very clear that good intentions are not enough to make the world a better place. In fact, good intentions -- internalized to the point where you have no self-doubt -- are just a cover for hubris of the worst kind.
Between the cynicism of a Humphrey Appleby world of "can't do anything" and the raging idealism of the well-intentioned, there has to be a middle way.
Two movies. Enjoyed them both. Very different takes on politics.
The Ghost Writer is a thriller, inspired by recent past events, and figuring "Adam Lang" as a former British PM. A great watch, in my opinion, as it manages to be both suspenseful and funny, which is a difficult combo. Everyone's commented on the bleakness of the backgrounds, and indeed, the grey seas, grey skies, windswept beaches, and hideously minimalist smart grey house do all contribute to the looming quality of the story.
But politically, it's just another conspiracy theory. Influential Brits bought out from Day 1 by the shady CIA. So conveniently simple -- so THAT'S why the UK is always the US's poodle. Of COURSE -- we always suspected it, and now we know...
The Special Relationship is very different. It's a character study, so the interest hinges on the psychology rather than the action. This is a much more subtle investigation of two elements of the UK's devotion to the US. Ideologically, the two people who lead these bits of the Anglosphere often see it as their mission to put the world to rights (Walter Russell Mead's God and Gold is interesting on this topic). And personally, they occasionally "click" on a personal level (here it's Blair and Clinton, but Thatcher and Reagan make another obvious example).
Ah, the late 1990s -- when we were all talking about new norms for humanitarian intervention. No more Bosnias; no more Rwandas. With Bill and Tony in tandem, we could save the world.
Well, this movie is a good reminder of what can go wrong in the process. (One such snafu -- the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade -- didn't actually get a mention.)
But beyond the Clinton-Blair dynamic, we get more of an insight into what made Blair tick.
Chillingly, all the language that was to figure so heavily in his backing of the Iraq invasion under Bush -- the event that knocked ideas of "humanitarian intervention" right back off the table -- was already tripping fluently off Blair's tongue. Good versus evil, a neat dividing up of the world into the nice guys and the nasty ones -- how could it even be possible that the good guys would not band together to get rid of the bad ones?
And so we ended up with Iraq. Blair backing a horribly one-eyed US coterie of idealistic US nationalists. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost and ruined, massively increased power handed on a plate to Iran, US world approval ratings at record lows, the Afghanistan campaign neglected, and so on -- almost ad infinitum.
I have no doubt Blair meant well. I have no doubt he was full of good intentions. But this movie makes very clear that good intentions are not enough to make the world a better place. In fact, good intentions -- internalized to the point where you have no self-doubt -- are just a cover for hubris of the worst kind.
Between the cynicism of a Humphrey Appleby world of "can't do anything" and the raging idealism of the well-intentioned, there has to be a middle way.