I was watching Disney's Robin Hood with my son, well I was watching it more then him. I always loved the movie. As a kid I had the record and would listen to it. Mind you, this was back before everyone had VCRs. It was a fun movie, with our heroes Robin and Little John robbing from the rich to help the poor that were being suffocated in the Prince's corruption and greed.
Can you imagine the outrage that this movie could inspire if it was made now? Taking from the rich to help those being trampled by corruption and greed is socialism. Those rich have earned that wealth, and as with the Prince, ignore any ethics, morals, and laws that were broken in the process. (Not that even a large portion of those living well off did so by questionable means, but reality is that some people do accumulate wealth by those means.) Funny how a movie released in 1973, firmly in the center of the Cold War, celebrated taking money from the wealthy to help the poor, yet now, nearly three decades after the end of the Cold War, socialism is cried at even a thought of helping those in need. Has the role of heroes reversed? Is the fictional Robin Hood and Little John now the villains, supporting the lazy impoverished instead of encouraging them to stand on their own feet, get an education, and get a good job. (The fact that the villages factories have gone to other countries, people can't afford to send their kids to college, and even after getting an education still live under the constant threat of company wide lay off, well that is not the problem of the Prince and Sheriff; if those pesky poor people had figured out ways to be rich despite the hurdles they wouldn't be in this situation!) Are the Prince and Sheriff now the heroes trying to protect the wealth accumulated at the cost of the standard of living of the villagers?
I suspect that there are those that would cry that Disney is trying to corrupt our kids with liberal, socialist ideas. You know, kind of like Teletubbies make kids homosexual and Dora endorses undocumented immigration.
Can you imagine the outrage that this movie could inspire if it was made now? Taking from the rich to help those being trampled by corruption and greed is socialism. Those rich have earned that wealth, and as with the Prince, ignore any ethics, morals, and laws that were broken in the process. (Not that even a large portion of those living well off did so by questionable means, but reality is that some people do accumulate wealth by those means.) Funny how a movie released in 1973, firmly in the center of the Cold War, celebrated taking money from the wealthy to help the poor, yet now, nearly three decades after the end of the Cold War, socialism is cried at even a thought of helping those in need. Has the role of heroes reversed? Is the fictional Robin Hood and Little John now the villains, supporting the lazy impoverished instead of encouraging them to stand on their own feet, get an education, and get a good job. (The fact that the villages factories have gone to other countries, people can't afford to send their kids to college, and even after getting an education still live under the constant threat of company wide lay off, well that is not the problem of the Prince and Sheriff; if those pesky poor people had figured out ways to be rich despite the hurdles they wouldn't be in this situation!) Are the Prince and Sheriff now the heroes trying to protect the wealth accumulated at the cost of the standard of living of the villagers?
I suspect that there are those that would cry that Disney is trying to corrupt our kids with liberal, socialist ideas. You know, kind of like Teletubbies make kids homosexual and Dora endorses undocumented immigration.
