Mr. Potter Had Some Good Points

On Christmas Eve, our family watched It's a Wonderful Life together. This was approximately my twentieth viewing, far and away a record for me for any movie. And though the wee ones squirmed with boredom, I hope that exposure to the movie at a young age will cause nostalgia to make them revere the movie as I do.

A friend of mine said the movie is somewhat socialist in its values. A correct observation, no doubt, but only if you mean "socialist" in the purest sense and not the fully loaded term it has become. "Socialist" had become a negative brand in this country, but I don't know how long that will remain the case.

Many citizens have distaste for the idea of socialism in the abstract, but display an addiction for almost every single aspect of it when its presented to them. Conversely, "I'm a capitalist" has been said by most of us, but half of the country espouses cliched platitiudes about "corporations" that sound like something Marx would write about the capitalists. I think we are on a long, slow march towards the left, towards socialism, except for the little problem that it doesn't work and we would, if we stayed on that path, pull the world down in a spiral with us.

So yes, It's a Wonderful Life is decidedly leftish in its worldview. It was made right at the end of a long reign of FDR's New Deal (which was our country's left wing, fascist moment) and before the Cold War began to bring the ideology of collectivism into sharper contrast within the culture. Only a few years later you can detect the "Establishment" view of the "American Way" in pop culture asserting itself -- everything in contras with the Soviet way of life. You can also detect the infancy of the counter-culture and the Beat Generation.

But most people like what they like, without letting politics dictate taste. And they don't conceptualize liking a film as "support" for a film's take on how things Ought to Be. I'm a huge fan of many movies and pop culture products which purport to absolutely revile everything that I am. But I believe good art portrays truth even in spite of the limitations placed by its creators' worldview filter. If something is good, even if it is something you disagree with, it comes back around to something you can find truth in.

I have always thought that It's A Wonderful Life embodies a very American form of "liberalism" that was embodied in New Deal. It combines a true empathy for working people, with a religious, moral impulse to do good. There is no anger at the system in the movie, no real sense that Mr. Potter's ability to thrive is an injustice. Instead, the movie rejoices over individual effort to triumph in the face of it.

Despite all her supposed trappings of a juggernaut, America views herself as George Bailey. It processes foreign policy through the lens of repeated acts of superhero rescues, and it processes economic policy through the lens of repeated acts of the little guy triumphing over the "fat cats" through hard work, honesty, and a little help from his friends.