[lit-ideas] Re: Mrs. Miniver
- From: "Stan Spiegel" <writeforu2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:37:09 -0500
LH: Mrs. Miniver was never conflicted. She knew that what the Fascist believed
was wrong. That movie was made in 1942, longer ago that Mike Geary is old.
The world has been deconstructed since then in the eyes of deconstructed
Liberal Democrats our Liberal Democracy has become worse than Fascist Islamism.
But thankfully these people exist only in certain small circles,
SS: Excuse me, Lawrence, but how did a criticism of liberal Democrats get into
that summary of Mrs. Minniver? What did I miss?
Stan Spiegel
Portland, ME
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 11:11 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Mrs. Miniver
My wife occasionally gets me to watch an old movie with her, and tonight we
watched Mrs. Miniver. It was surprisingly good. Greer Garson did an amazing
job of acting and won the academy award for it. The movie took place in the
early days of World War II. It's about an English family's efforts to rise
above the hardships of war. And, as Netflix tells me, "Mrs. Miniver stands
tall, strong, proud and still filled with hope."
In one scene Mrs. Miniver finds a wounded German pilot in her yard. He
produces a Luger and insists that she feed him and give him a coat to cover his
uniform. She reproaches him for Germany's killing of women and children and he
threatens to do the same to England. At which she slaps him on the face.
The German's fascist speech reminded me of the Islamists speeches I've read.
Islamism is after all an a fascist tyranny in its ideology. Francis Fukuyama
believes Liberal-Democracy shall defeat all competing forms of government and
society, but Fascism is alive and well in the form of Islamism. Islamists
promise to do to us what the German flyer promised to do to Mrs. Miniver.
In a scene in a partially ruined church, the pastor notes the civilians who
have been killed and observed that this was a war of peoples, and that
therefore it wasn't surprising that little kids and old men became casualties.
That is the war the Islamists are fighting as well, targeting civilians.
Back in World War II, Lord Haw Haw was considered a traitor for supporting
the Fascists, but the present world is more complicated. Many modern
Westerners believe the Islamists are, despite their announced goals, harmless.
They think that Islamist attacks on civilians are to be excused because they
represent post-Colonial and post-Cold-War frustration. All the Islamists do is
excused in some manner or other, and those who oppose them are blamed in words
that defy logic. Surely some might think, when the Islamists get nuclear
weapons, they should be opposed, and I see a breaking of ranks and a leaning
toward such opposition, but others have made the final adjustment and have
learned to love the bomb.
Mrs. Miniver was never conflicted. She knew that what the Fascist believed
was wrong. That movie was made in 1942, longer ago that Mike Geary is old.
The world has been deconstructed since then in the eyes of deconstructed
Liberal Democrats our Liberal Democracy has become worse than Fascist Islamism.
But thankfully these people exist only in certain small circles,
Circling into ever smaller
Circles, a whirlpool, an
Inverted water spout,
Churning its liquid fury
And clutching at the inadvertent
In a downward rush.
Beyond, a half-day
Fishing boat slowly
Passes, with fishers
Focus on the ripples
And the tugs of their
Trolled lines,
And further out a sailor
On a broad reach
Is oblivious to all but
The beauty of the wind
And the sun scintillating
From the tops of flashing
Waves, brave in exhilaration
And the sea at its most joyous,
But in a while the wind died down,
The sea begins its evening chop,
The fishers headed for home,
And the sailor tacks past the sea
Where the whirlpool had whirled
And regrets the days end.
Lawrence
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