Thursday, 2 August 2007

"Amazing Grace"

As part of our topic on the Industrial Revolution later on in the year (which I hope doesn't turn out to be anti-capitalist droll) two classes, on of which I am part, went to see the movie "Amazing Grace" today. For those who need a primer on the movie, it is based on the work of William Wilberforce, who ended the slave trade in Britain in the early nineteenth century.

The Good: The movie was about a very important event for Libertarians, especially in Britain, and a huge achievement for the ideals of The Enlightenment.

The Bad: Enlightenment/Libertarian ideals weren't represented very well. In the movie, William Wilberforce favoured appeasement with the French (that may be an oxymoron, but at the time the movie was set France was ruled by one Napoleon Bonaparte).

My Verdict: The movie was about an event which was important to us Libertarians, but the ideals around which the slave trade was abolished weren't portrayed too well. 8/10.

The only thing is, slavery still exists today. You may not be officially owned by anyone, but if the government takes your money-the fruits of your production-and gives it to people who d somehow don't happen to be you, is that not a form of slavery?

2 comments:

riki said...

yes it is slavery and when the people finally wake up (which even the dormouse in wonderland eventually had to do) the govt will rub its hands in glee and order a complete military clamp down and we will have the same position as in Fiji which the govt has actively opposed.

Why is it commonwelth nation citizens cannot travel freely in commonwealth countries. why do we need a passport to go to Rarotonga which is a NZ territory.

Do Americans ned a pass port to go to Hawaii ??

Callum said...

Most of the passport laws came into effect after the world wars. Beforehand, you could travel into pretty much any nation you wish, without the authorities taking any notice. Nowadays, that's only true in the EU.

I don't think Americans need a passport to travel to Hawaii, although I did see something on the US Libertarian Party website a while back about some "internal passport" the US government was secretly enacting, by "word of mouth".