The only thing that I was a bit disappointed in was that it is touted as offering a path of what should be done, but there's little in the movie of what to do.
That said, I think that Dinesh does a good job of identifying some of the slanders that the Alinskyites use to try to diminish the US and how to look at them with a different perspective to see that these arguments are really just a mechanism to degrade America. When looked at from a non-guilty perspective, you can find a very different perspective of Americanism.
What I found very powerful is that the best arguments for the American dream are presented by foreigners - D'Souza himself as well as Bono (an Irishman).
He can't say what needs to be done...then it would have turned into a political policy debate movie and that's not what he wanted to present, (plus, it's up the viewers to give thought to solutions... probably the premise of the movie..make people THINK.) I'm looking forward to seeing it. :)
I'm going to see it next week at Freedomfest here in Las Vegas along with a pre-release of AS3. The solution is to give up altruism. I don't expect him to accept that and I'm going to look for any package-deals in the d'Sousa's movie. Given his background I expect to find one or two.
Will do with the caveat that this is not the finished product. Actually, I'm intrigued about whether the finished product is better than the prerelease version.
yes. the charlatan's credo is re-invent the meaning of words. constantly make definitions moving targets. I actually think I have been influenced. db and I had a heated debate over the meaning of "second-hander" this morning. I was all nose in the prose and db kept saying, if you are not a producer you are a second hander. Neighbors probably thought we were arguing about money or an affair. lol it got LOUD
The only thing that's going to change this nation is a return to the principles it was founded on: - A moral and upright population - Limited Government (because people are imperfect, ***and imperfectable***)
I'm glad to have allies that may not share my Christian faith, but I have no faith that they will remain faithful to these same principles. Heck, I have no faith that a fellow Christian will remain faithful to these principles. HECK... I have no faith that even I can remain faithful to them. We're all human. We're so corrupt it's disgusting.
The only thing I suppose that will ever make a real change in the grand scheme of things is when Christ returns. But, I have no say in when that happens, so, until then, I do what I'm supposed to :)
I'm skeptical. This movie series has focused on politics and is almost denuded of the backing philosophy. I'll wait to see if my skepticism is justified or not.
I'm sure that D'Souza had this in mind when he made the movie. He was probably scrupulously avoiding any hint of advocating armed uprising. He is depending on all intelligent people to draw their own conclusion as to how to save America. A war of attrition (refusing to pay the income tax) comes to mind. At least in this instant the use of force by the citizenry would be retaliatory, not initiated.
AS movies. I hardly recognize the philosophical content so much has been stripped from the first two. I'm hoping that AS3 is an improvement, although I am in the camp of those who that think only a multipart miniseries can properly capture the scope of the book.
I hear ya. But movies are not books. If you get a chance, stop by and say hey to my daughter, Kira. She works for teh movie and will be there helping out.
Saw it yesterday afternoon. My theatre did not run the AS3 trailer. This is fine conservative propaganda, but won't have any effect on liberals. Frankly, I'm bemused that I actually paid money to see it.
Good expose, very informative. My son, thank God, learned a bit about our land that he's been too stubborn to believe coming from me.
The audience applauded twice - once at the movies end and again AFTER the hard rock revision of the Star Spangled banner. My wife suffered information overload (her words not mine).
My family no longer thinks I'm crazy or overzealous.
I saw _America_ this afternoon in Austin, Texas, at the AMC-14; no ASIII trailer. The audience of about 30-35 was mostly older. They applauded at the end, and many stood for the credits, I assumed because the "Star Spangled Banner" played.
D'Souza sets up five straw man arguments: America was stolen from the natives; built with the stolen labor of slaves; that capitalism is unfair; that America enriches itself through imperialism; that the American dream is a sham. While acknowledging the injustice of slavery, D'Souza points to the Civil War that ended it; and to the reconciliation between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. He claimed that America was first in abolishing slavery, though, of course that is not true: both England and France were ahead of the USA.
He continued to deliver the historical record _not_ presented by anti-American historian Howard Zinn, such as the story of Madame C. J. Walker, the first woman to earn millionaire status by her own efforts, an African-American entrepreneur.
After that and other narratives, D"Souza says that many of these are old complaints, independently voiced, and, again, not entirely without basis. However, the modern attack on America is a co-ordinated, purposeful destruction launched by Saul Alinsky (acolyte or disciple of Frank Nitti, interestingly enough) who directly influenced an array of Chicago leftists, including Hillary Rodham before she married Bill Clinton. Rodham actually broke with Alinsky, denying the value in community organizing, and believing instead that change must come from the top down. And of course, President Obama has more than a few moments telling us that we can keep our doctors and that we all will have health insurance.
The full presentation of all the arguments would take you two hours to read. D'Souza has them in a book, antecedent to the movie. It was denied a place on the NY Times best seller list despite its sales tallies: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014...
As for whether or not the movie offers an action plan, I believe that its purpose is to galvanize the right. After seeing this film, conservatives and libertarians across the spectrum should become more vocal - even more - in defending and advancing the values that made and make America exceptional.
I just saw the movie "America" today and highly recommend it. It was an intellectually and emotionally powerful defense of America. It first discussed the indictments against America by liberals who believe America is an evil country and should be ashamed of itself. It then annihilated those arguments by the Left and put American history in proper context with the rest of the world.
If you go to the theatre to see an additional movie to ASP3 this year, "America" is that movie. Encourage likeminded patriots to see it as well, along with any independent-minded American with at least rudimentary thinking skills.
Do not waste your time telling liberals to see the movie. They are a hopeless group of non-thinkers and not worth wasting your time on.
Enjoy your Independence Day watching "America", in theatres now...
I would opine that it is not only worth it, but it is essential if the civilization is to be salvaged, to make an effort to educate those who do not get it- or at least put things out there for them to grapple with. It is also an educational experience in learning how to communicate with people. Sure, some will get it, others won't- but go out of your comfort zone a bit; gain new skills! The seeds you plant today may become trees, though it takes time and your input may connect at some other time with other experiences in their life. Johnny Appleseed model. Learning is in part developing new neural pathways. Oversimplifying here, but the receptors have to have input to come to critical mass and make a cognitive leap. Plato got people to come to their own conclusions- "Which one of these things is not like the other?" Part of the problem is that the elites who want us to think they run this game have a DIVIDE AND CONQUER strategy going- if neither group talks to the other, more unreal stereotypes balloon while others preach to the choir so to speak and we play into that dead end. Don your hip boots; sharpen skills of artful playful delivery, learn how to reach people from where they are, you may be surprised that they unconsciously are seeking answers but are trapped in their own bubble.Humor is a key- if people can laugh at the ridiculous without being overwhelmed with shame at their ignorance, then bit by bit they are capable of waking up. Get familiar with the stages: from denial, rage, shame, reflection, etc. "Critical Thinking... The Other National Deficit."
"Education is not the earning of facts, but the training of the mind to think." Albert Einstein
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - - Greek Philosopher, Plato 429-347 BC
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, 1984
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair
"The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them." Albert Einstein
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." — C.S. Lewis
"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." -Samuel Adams
"The lost cannot be recovered; but let us save what remains; not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use, in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident." Thomas Jefferson, February 18, 1791
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw
Remember: The more playful you are about it, then the easier it all is. So before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. - Abraham / Esther Hicks
I like the quotes. For many years, I have followed the approach of "planting seeds" with my liberal colleagues. Perhaps I will continue, but I am very weary of their non-thinking regurgitation of Dem talking points from liberal la-la land. I would like to think they are not a hopeless cause, but empirical evidence seems to indicate otherwise...
To be sure, some have mainlined the koolaid to the point that they have lost all references to reality. Will sometimes turn the Alinsky model on it's head just to mess with them after bringing up Rules for Radicals methodology ( which they unconsciously follow without having read), Manufactured Consent, Freeze, Polarize, Personalize etc: " Did you know they're renaming the San Andreas Fault? They're going to rename it Bush's Fault since he knew about it and did nothing to stop it"
" Gosh, liberals are the most TOLERANT people I know- tolerant of other liberals who agree with them 100% Party Line without one iota of deviation! All bets are off, to anyone else"
In talking with Global Warmists I point out that the entire solar system is experiencing " climate change" due to variations in solar output. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is shrinking, etc. Surely THAT was Bush's fault!
Also, during the Viking era, GREENLAND was named that because- guess what? It was GREEN!
"I always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: "O Lord, make our enemies quite ridiculous!" God granted it." Voltaire, Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville (16 May 1767).
The audience was quiet during all of the trailers, including the ASP3 sand art trailer. The theatre was less than half full, with mostly retired senior citizens. I was probably the youngest person there (I'm 40). The younger, brainwashed generation wasn't there. Perhaps that was due to me going to the 2:35 PM EST showing and being in Florida.
After "America" finished, the audience clapped and most stayed to watch the credits and listen to the patriotic music.
My wife and I went yesterday to an 11:40 AM showing of America in Redmond WA. The ASP3 trailer was there and everyone watched in respect. There were only 8 of us in the audience. About half clapped at the end of the movie. The restroom got posted with Post-It Note.
My wife and I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. She didn't know about Alinsky. D'Souza considers many of the left's criticisms of this country, lets them speak their points, and then proceeds to dismantle them one by one.
I didn't see a Who Is John Galt? trailer at the Carmike Theatre in Melbourne/Viera, FL, but I did leave a few Post-It Notes behind. It was very disappointing to see just how few people were there, but granted it was only 10:30 AM when we went to see it on 7/4.
It is on a plane with "Ben Hur," "The Sound Of Music," "Letters From Iwo Jima," and a few others. The timing was perfect. Let's hope that ASIII has a similar impact.
That said, I think that Dinesh does a good job of identifying some of the slanders that the Alinskyites use to try to diminish the US and how to look at them with a different perspective to see that these arguments are really just a mechanism to degrade America. When looked at from a non-guilty perspective, you can find a very different perspective of Americanism.
What I found very powerful is that the best arguments for the American dream are presented by foreigners - D'Souza himself as well as Bono (an Irishman).
“In dealing with poverty here and around the world, welfare and foreign aid are a Band-Aid. Free enterprise is a cure.
“Entrepreneurship is the most sure way of development.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/feed/35406...
I'm looking forward to seeing it. :)
I actually think I have been influenced. db and I had a heated debate over the meaning of "second-hander" this morning. I was all nose in the prose and db kept saying, if you are not a producer you are a second hander. Neighbors probably thought we were arguing about money or an affair. lol it got LOUD
Did you correct db...cuz him was wrong. :)
Okay..let me think about it while I work for a bit.
- A moral and upright population
- Limited Government (because people are imperfect, ***and imperfectable***)
I'm glad to have allies that may not share my Christian faith, but I have no faith that they will remain faithful to these same principles. Heck, I have no faith that a fellow Christian will remain faithful to these principles. HECK... I have no faith that even I can remain faithful to them. We're all human. We're so corrupt it's disgusting.
The only thing I suppose that will ever make a real change in the grand scheme of things is when Christ returns. But, I have no say in when that happens, so, until then, I do what I'm supposed to :)
What would happen if America were to go on strike?
The audience applauded twice - once at the movies end and again AFTER the hard rock revision of the Star Spangled banner. My wife suffered information overload (her words not mine).
My family no longer thinks I'm crazy or overzealous.
D'Souza sets up five straw man arguments: America was stolen from the natives; built with the stolen labor of slaves; that capitalism is unfair; that America enriches itself through imperialism; that the American dream is a sham. While acknowledging the injustice of slavery, D'Souza points to the Civil War that ended it; and to the reconciliation between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. He claimed that America was first in abolishing slavery, though, of course that is not true: both England and France were ahead of the USA.
He continued to deliver the historical record _not_ presented by anti-American historian Howard Zinn, such as the story of Madame C. J. Walker, the first woman to earn millionaire status by her own efforts, an African-American entrepreneur.
After that and other narratives, D"Souza says that many of these are old complaints, independently voiced, and, again, not entirely without basis. However, the modern attack on America is a co-ordinated, purposeful destruction launched by Saul Alinsky (acolyte or disciple of Frank Nitti, interestingly enough) who directly influenced an array of Chicago leftists, including Hillary Rodham before she married Bill Clinton. Rodham actually broke with Alinsky, denying the value in community organizing, and believing instead that change must come from the top down. And of course, President Obama has more than a few moments telling us that we can keep our doctors and that we all will have health insurance.
The full presentation of all the arguments would take you two hours to read. D'Souza has them in a book, antecedent to the movie. It was denied a place on the NY Times best seller list despite its sales tallies: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014...
As for whether or not the movie offers an action plan, I believe that its purpose is to galvanize the right. After seeing this film, conservatives and libertarians across the spectrum should become more vocal - even more - in defending and advancing the values that made and make America exceptional.
If you go to the theatre to see an additional movie to ASP3 this year, "America" is that movie. Encourage likeminded patriots to see it as well, along with any independent-minded American with at least rudimentary thinking skills.
Do not waste your time telling liberals to see the movie. They are a hopeless group of non-thinkers and not worth wasting your time on.
Enjoy your Independence Day watching "America", in theatres now...
Learning is in part developing new neural pathways. Oversimplifying here, but the receptors have to have input to come to critical mass and make a cognitive leap.
Plato got people to come to their own conclusions- "Which one of these things is not like the other?" Part of the problem is that the elites who want us to think they run this game have a DIVIDE AND CONQUER strategy going- if neither group talks to the other, more unreal stereotypes balloon while others preach to the choir so to speak and we play into that dead end. Don your hip boots; sharpen skills of artful playful delivery, learn how to reach people from where they are, you may be surprised that they unconsciously are seeking answers but are trapped in their own bubble.Humor is a key- if people can laugh at the ridiculous without being overwhelmed with shame at their ignorance, then bit by bit they are capable of waking up. Get familiar with the stages: from denial, rage, shame, reflection, etc.
"Critical Thinking... The Other National Deficit."
"Education is not the earning of facts, but the training of the mind to think." Albert Einstein
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - - Greek Philosopher, Plato 429-347 BC
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, 1984
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair
"The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them." Albert Einstein
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." — C.S. Lewis
"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." -Samuel Adams
"The lost cannot be recovered; but let us save what remains; not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use, in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident."
Thomas Jefferson, February 18, 1791
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw
Remember: The more playful you are about it, then the easier it all is. So before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. - Abraham / Esther Hicks
" Did you know they're renaming the San Andreas Fault?
They're going to rename it Bush's Fault since he knew about it and did nothing to stop it"
" Gosh, liberals are the most TOLERANT people I know- tolerant of other liberals who agree with them 100% Party Line without one iota of deviation! All bets are off, to anyone else"
In talking with Global Warmists I point out that the entire solar system is experiencing " climate change" due to variations in solar output. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is shrinking, etc. Surely THAT was Bush's fault!
Also, during the Viking era, GREENLAND was named that because- guess what? It was GREEN!
Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville (16 May 1767).
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."
-Plutarch
to realize the goodness of America.
After "America" finished, the audience clapped and most stayed to watch the credits and listen to the patriotic music.
I didn't see a Who Is John Galt? trailer at the Carmike Theatre in Melbourne/Viera, FL, but I did leave a few Post-It Notes behind. It was very disappointing to see just how few people were there, but granted it was only 10:30 AM when we went to see it on 7/4.
The timing was perfect. Let's hope that ASIII has a similar impact.
Christian and Military Adventurism is Good.