Saving Private Ryan: Freedom, capitalism, and Joe America (Joe Lunchbox!)

I just watched Saving Private Ryan. I haven't seen it for several years, and I enjoyed it a lot once again.

Something that struck me:

At the end (and beginning) of the film, James Ryan is an old man, going to visit the grave of the Captain who instrumented his return to the US. Just before he dies, Cpt Hanks says "Earn this" to Ryan.

Ryan is there with his family: His wife, children, and grandchildren. And he says "Beverley, tell me I'm a good man". To which she says "You are."

We don't know anything about Ryan. That's intentional. All we know is that he's Joe America, with kids and grandchildren that wear nice clothes, and are interested in coming to the grave-site with him. And this is a good life. Regular American life is a good life. That's what Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks clearly want to say.

Another thing:
The end is accompanied by a letter written by some sort of head of the army. And he says that James fought valiantly to rid the world of tyranny and oppression. The thing that struck me about this letter, is that it's true. The US (and Australia) do not actively oppress anyone born in the US or Australia. Nobody in Australia or the US could say that they are tyrannised by their government.

The Nazis were right-wing in that way too.

So the US doesn't oppress anyone, except by neglect. The gap between the rich and poor in America is huge. And my experience of being in that country was that there are a lot of beggars, and a lot of people getting by on not much. I wouldn't live in the US except in pretty special circumstances.

It's funny to me that the US, (and to a lesser extent Australia), think that oppression by a government involves active oppression of their own people only. It's clear from Graham's posts on this blog that both nations actively oppress people in countries (as do we by our compliance). And it's clear that, especially in the US,  people are oppressed by neglect. But this comes across as virtuous, because every person has the right to pursue their dreams, and every person has the right to make their fortune etc. It's about freedom.

So it turns out I don't want freedom.

This is obvious when it comes to violence. This is also obvious when it comes to health care. I would rather have a good public health insurance system than the US system which is more of a 'free market'. But it also applies to social services. I would never have been able to go to University in the States (well, maybe I would have got a scholarship, but that would have been my only chance). I like Australia's pseudo-free university system (free in the fiscal sense). I like that if people are struggling for whatever reason, they have access to government help.

These things result in less freedom, in the capitalist sense. This is good stuff.

Just saying...