The Decalogue I

Got out Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue from GenX and watched the first episode of ten. Pretty grim. And it strikes me that in a series of movies based on the ten commandments there will not be many opportunities for comic relief. The first commandment (I had to look this up) is "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" and the protagonist in the episode has rather too much pride in his ability to calculate (he has a computer running DOS) and, boy, does he have it coming from a jealous God. (This makes it sound more like an episode of The Twilight Zone than it is, but there is that aspect.)

A commandment is a problematic subject for a movie because it has no moral content. The bad consequences of breaching a commandment aren't inherent in it, they come from outside, from it being commanded. The commandment might as well be "Don't step on the white line." One approach to adapting it is to naturalize it, to put it into the world as an instance of wisdom of a conditional form. Instead of "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" something like "Don't stay with your head up your ass, because you'll miss things!". (In comparison, you have the Eric Rohmer movies based on proverbs such as "He who has two women loses his soul, he who has two houses loses his mind.") And maybe that is the source of ambiguity in the Kieslowski movie, in that we live simultaneously in a world of practical reason, and in a world of irrational forces. Or maybe there is no ambiguity. I will have to see where he goes with it. Nine hours to go!

Thief of Bagdad

Watched the 1940 Thief of Bagdad (a new release from Criterion) last night. Story rickety, songs naf, and Ahmad seemed a very English idea of a deposed monarch, rather as if the Duke of Windsor had been released in the desert wearing only his underpants. Abu (the thief of the title) cute but I wonder if having him turned into a dog and licking hands showed sufficient cultural sensitivity. A lot of dialog on the order of "Speak up, O toothless one!" There is a genie, a flying carpet, pointy shoes, scimitars, etc. Ho hum.

And then there is the Silver Maid:

Strategic Incompetence of Dion

I despair of Dion's understanding of political strategy. You don't float trial balloons (i.e. the carbon tax) if you are in opposition! If you're the government, you can do that. You can send out a Royal Commission, whatever, spend months on talking about it and then come out with a policy. But not in opposition against a ruthless and cynical government with a massive war-chest. They can use TV ads to fill in the gaps while you're just looking at the gaps.

Moreover, do give your supporters some talking points! I am appalled by the level of understanding of the implications of a carbon tax on the Liberal blogs I've been reading. In particular, the statement that a natural price increase is the same as an increase in taxes. Wrong! Go back to Econ 101! Read your David Ricardo!

Next, a carbon tax is essentially the same as a cap-and-trade system! And even frigging John McCain is in favour of a cap-and-trade system! So the politically saleable policy is cap-and-trade even if carbon tax is better. You can say Obama, McCain are doing it, why not you Mr. Harper?

Or to take another tack, American conservatives are in favour of the carbon tax! All right -- Andrew Sullivan is. Libertarians are. Still. Principled conservatives are in favour of it. Unlike the unscrupulous crew who govern us.