Roderick, it's true of course that big business "is often in league with government and eager to advance itself through force and government favouritism [sic] rather than through peaceful trade and commerce," but Lucas hardly seems to be advancing that line. He's just recycling the generic trade-is-bad line that is all too familiar in Hollywood. Note how, in the first movie, Tatooine's seemingly laissez-faire society is dominated by thugs and criminals - Mos Eisly is a wretched hive of scum and vilainy. By the time we get to the fourth film, it's a slave society! Lucas thinks that unfettered capitalism = domination by criminal gangs and the enslavement of others. Is that "consistent with the libertarian vision"?
by Aeon J. Skoble on August 30, 2004 at 8:50 AM