Up with Iron Man; Down with the Merchants of Death
The phrase Merchants of Death takes center stage in the movie Iron Man, which is a spectacular expose of a subject that dominates the American economic landscape but about which Americans have very little knowledge. The phrase and the movie deal with the odd juxtaposition of capitalism and war as found in the weapons industry. Here we have innovations and efficiency of the type we associate with the private commercial sector but serving ends that are the very opposite of capitalism. The industry serves war, not peace, depends on coercion, not human volition, and profits from destruction, not creation. FULL ARTICLE
Comments (10)
The Bad Guy had a point, though. He pointed out that while Tony Stark stopped making weapons for sale, he created a super-weapon for himself. Super-weapons for me but not for thee.
Of course Iron Man was using his destructive killing power for "good," which in the context of movie was interventionist. He went over to the mid east to clean up his own mess.
Iron Man was a bit of a complicated movie actually. But fun to watch.
Published: May 5, 2008 3:47 PM
Iron Man used his weapon for interventionist purposes, but as a private individual rather than as a government. He did lobby the government to tax others and send other people's children over there to die. Although something tells me that the U.N. would've tried to stop him.
Published: May 5, 2008 4:04 PM
Good movie. Randians should get a kick out of tony stark's quasi hank reardon'esque performance. I very much liked the image of the lone genius toiling in his basement.
And I would trade my left kidney to have an assistant like Penny Potts.
Published: May 5, 2008 4:32 PM
Mrhuh,
Good point. The government should issue him letters of marque and reprisal.
Published: May 5, 2008 5:43 PM
Up with Iron Man?
Tony Stark is a merchant of death. In the comics, he also happens to be quite the fascist, lobbying the government to force superheroes to reveal their identities, and arresting the ones who don't. He ends up fighting Captain America over it.
I haven't been able to see the movie yet, so I don't know how they portray him, but I have seen the previews where the reporter says, "Some people call you the merchant of death." He replies that it's not a bad title for him. I think that's hardly a title to be proud of.
I deal with weapons and ammunition every day. I am not in the least proud of that fact. No decent human being should be.
Published: May 5, 2008 6:23 PM
It's true that Iron Man has become some fascistic during the Civil War storyline (though I'm glad that they tried to make him as sympathetic as possible and not just some cliche fascist). However even the whole Superhuman Registration Act is starting to now suffer some major blowback during the current Secret Invasion storyline. As for the line in the movie, it comes early on before Stark grows a conscience and starts to care about whose hands his weapons fall into.
Published: May 5, 2008 7:16 PM
And the other kidney for the "Iron Man" suit.
Published: May 5, 2008 8:14 PM
In modern day arms deals, does the arms manufacturer sell directly to the foreign armed forces, or does the US government buy and then sell them? Not that it makes much difference, except inasmuch as the government might either subsidize the sale or profit from it.
Published: May 7, 2008 2:30 PM
Uh, uh. The mujahideen who kicked out the Soviets weren't the Taliban. They came 5 yrs later, after the guerrillas pretty much tore the country apart after the Soviet withdrawal. The hardcore Islamists were only one part of the resistance.
It is easy to diss the CIA over Afghanistan now, with Bin Laden around, but I'll trade our global war on terror any day over the risk of mutual assured destruction we all lived with for 5 decades. Which itself was a big improvement over what would otherwise very likely have been a conventional WW3.
What it does mean is that we owe the people of Afghanistan big time and that we should get our act together, kick the Taliban out or negociate and reconstruct the country. And it also means we should not trust Pakistan one iota more than necessary because they're the ones who created the Taliban.
Published: May 8, 2008 12:12 AM
It reminds me of the pharmaceutical industry also, though perhaps death is only the occasional byproduct. It follows in the footsteps of "It's all about money" and at any cost.
Published: May 10, 2008 11:46 AM