Oliver Stone is a very
accomplished filmmaker, so it makes sense for a pay channel to jump at the
chance to make a series with him.
Unfortunately, Showtime has elected to make a documentary series, Secret History of America, a companion
piece to his book, in which Stone expounds at length on his particular views regarding post-war American history. There
are conflicting opinions regarding particular points Stone makes, but less on
who Stone is and what he has stood for.
Stone has a radical, profoundly
illiberal perspective. His is not
the sort of mainstream left wing view, arguing in favor of a more active role
for the state in the context of a liberal political system and a market
oriented economy. Rather he
consistently throws his lot in with radical revolutionaries and propagandizes
for totalitarian, absolutist, left extremism. For example, he has made two sympathetic documentaries on
Fidel Castro, Looking for Fidel and Commandante, helping perpetuate the myth
that the tyrant is a sympathetic humanist persevering against “Imperialism”. (Full disclosure – I’ve not yet seen
these; I’ve read about them and intend to catch up with them at some point).
He has worked with Marxist
agitator Tariq Ali on his most recent documentary before Untold History, South of the Border. By most accounts, South
of the Border paints an almost uniformly positive picture of Hugo Chavez’s
Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.
Some have reservations.
For example, one group which recently sent a mission to investigate the
state of the Bolivarian republic noted that “As expressed in
a manual for workers’ education published by an official trade union, “violence
is the means for the implementation of modern societies (according to Marx)”.
Violence, threats, intimidation, insecurity, uncertainty and instability of
laws and procedures constitute the current framework of society. This has
consequences not only for the private lives of the people and for civil and
political life, but equally for national economic activity.” Who are these skeptical reactionaries? The Socialist International. You can read the rest of their report
here:
At other times, Stone has
apologized for and equivocated regarding Colombia’s notorious FARC
(Revolutionary armed forces of Colombia) Marxist Revolutionaries. “They're a peasant army; I see them as a
Zapata-like army. I think they are heroic to fight for what they believe in and
die for it, as was Castro in the hills of Cuba."”
It seems nearly anyone who advocates
illiberal economics, anti-Americanism and violence has a better than fair
chance at earning Stone’s esteem.
The book and TV program comes at a time when more liberal
ideas, especially regarding trade, sound currency, the rule of law and property
rights, are at a low and apparently receding ebb globally. In addition, a generation with no living
memory of the cold war, the Soviet Union and the horrors of Communism has come
of age. One thing few would
dispute with Stone, is that 20th century history is often poorly
taught and little known. It makes
it all the more unfortunate that many will likely learn much of what they think
they know from this series.
