Posted by
Andrews on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 7:03:15 PM
I wrote earlier about my problems with the anti-heroic aspects the
The Watchmen, and I have commented several times on
another blog's article on the same topic. However, I just realized that the plot is itself the ultimate manifestation of liberalism.
As I wrote before, liberals (and other authoritarians, I don't want to imply it is unique to liberalism) see everyone as incompetent and in need of an elite to save them from themselves. And in
The Watchmen, what is the conclusion? (Spoilers coming) Why, they decide to allow Ozymandias' deception in order to prevent the stupid mass of humanity from destroying themselves. You see, without these elites, with all their "moral sophistication" (including the completely arbitrary actions of Dr. Manhattan), the world wouldn't be able to save itself. Only a small elite can save the rest of stupid humanity from itself.
I just realized, the more I think about this story, this more offended I become.
POSTSCRIPT
And yes, all superheroes are an elite saving humanity. The difference is traditional heroes save humanity from external threats, while here we have "heroes" deceiving people to save them from themselves. That is a tremendous difference.
POSTSCRIPT II
My comments on Publius' Forum, for those who don't follow links (with corrections):
Not So Much Anti-American
My concerns are not so much with the anti-American[ism] as the need to tear
down the heroic. Now I can comprehend adding some nuance to the more
simplistic stories that once were comic books, but at some point things
go beyond examining moral imperfections into glorying in imperfection.
To
stick to geek land, let me contrast His Master's Voice by [Stanislaw]
Lem. The narrator explicitly describes himself as "evil" and reveling
in tearing down the works of others, yet is presented as worthy of pity.
On
the other hand, the Watchmen so enjoys its grey areas that it has to
portray the one character with any convictions as a psychopath. On the
other hand, it seems to say that the path to divine power is to develop
absolute ambivalence, or even to be simply capricious. (After all, Dr.
Manhattan doesn't act out of any principle, but simply out of marvel at
the miracle that [Silk Spectre] exists. And yet he is presented as some
near divine being.)
I am no devotee of the Rand "all art must be
elevating" theory, but I certainly have problems with the "wallow with
us in the sewer" school of art which seems to pass for depth today.
I think that pretty well sums up my thoughts.