I’ve wanted to write about the HBO mini-series John Adams for some time now, but I’m not able to put my thoughts together in any presentable way that I would expect others to read and follow. And I have tried. And I’ll probably try again.
This evening, however, I discovered that the soundtrack to the series is available, and I promptly purchased it through iTunes. While waiting for the download, I perused some of the reviews at Amazon and came across this mind-numbing gem of colossal stupidity:
A terrific series with brilliant cinematography! I DO wish that the producers (Tom Hanks certainly had the say) had left out the use of the tobacco drug. We don’t need smoking or other use of tobacco in ANY movie. Otherwise, a memorable series that everyone over the age of 12 should see! I understand that the DVD extras as really supposed to be something. I’ve already got my order in for the set.
Emphasis added.
I responded with this comment, which I want to re-print here before Amazon takes it down:
Of all the unpleasant things depicted in the series that are historical factualities… tarring and feathering, inoculations with a rusty unsterile cutting implement, life-threatening disease of all kinds, graphic tooth decay, chronic alcoholism, amputation of a leg from a man still awake and the associated gore, a masectomy performed on a woman who could do little except bite down on a pencil, and whatever else I’ve forgotten to list… you’ve chosen to complain about John Adams *smoking cigars* as something inappropriate? This is exactly the kind of anti-tobacco zealotry that further reinforces the nanny state which founding fathers such as John Adams would have fought with every last fiber of his being. It seems that the point of John Adams’s life, and the series, are lost on you.
Freedom. The freedom to make mistakes and bad decisions (if you consider smoking such) included. Especially included. Having the personal preferences of others forced upon you by the law is not freedom.
And as a somewhat related stinger, I want to add this for those of you who have seen the series or have any meaningful understanding of John Adams: Think of Adams, his life, his principles, his accomplishments, his obstacles, and his integrity; and then take a good look at the three candidates we’re considering right now. If you don’t feel some sense of sadness, of regret, of apprehension for our republic, then I call into serious question your patriotism, your perspective, and the value you assign comfort at freedom’s expense.
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May 9th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Considering Adams’ willingness to eviscerate the First Amendment by signing the Sedition acts, I’d say he was not, like every other politician ever, against making the government a nanny state along vectors he approved of.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
The nanny state attempts to justify itself in several ways. Some people beg us to think of the children. Some people think they know what’s better for you than you do, or believe that others are too dumb to make their own decisions. Some people believe they have a right to absolute comfort and inoffensiveness at all times. None of these were the motive for the Sedition Act, signed into law by Adams, but presented to him by Congress without his prompting.
Adams’s Presidency was an extraordinary circumstance that will very likely never be repeated in the sense that he was essentially a lone individual fighting off opposition from a party he did not belong to which filled his cabinet and a Vice President who was his most energetic opponent. War with France was a real possibility and French nationals were in the cities of America recruiting soldiers for their cause and whipping up the populace. The purpose of the Alien and Sedition Acts was to put a stop to spies and rabble rousers who threatened the nation at the expense of its domestic peace and the integrity of its government. Note that I am not arguing the correctness of either of these acts, only that the motivation for them was a genuine concern for national security. I would equate the Alien and Sedition acts with FDR’s Japanese internment camps rather than things like smoking and seat belt laws. There are huge differences of intent.
The nanny state is motivated by the belief that a certain group knows how everyone ought to behave in the minutiae of their lives, and they’ll criminalize anyone who doesn’t comply. The Sedition Act didn’t aim to control the day-to-day actions of individuals, rather it aimed to stem internal threats to a fledgling nation on the brink of a war that certainly would have put a swift end to the new republic.