Sunday, December 9, 2012

Oliver Stone and the Untold History of the United States



This Week's Guest is Oliver Stone:
Oliver Stone

A note from Robert Wenzel:
This interview was probably the most difficult I have had to conduct. Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick cover a huge swath of American history in their book, The Untold History of the United States. I wanted to get them on record on a number of points. This meant my raising questions on some topics but letting pass other cringe causing comments they made. I could have, for example, spent the entire interview debating Stone on his support of Paul Krugman. So while I do challenge them on a number of topics throughout the interview, please know it would have been difficult to challenge them on each and every point, where  my views differ.
Stone and Kuznick are very good on the surveillance state and overseas military adventures. They are not so good on domestic economic issues. They certainly have no understanding of how central planning will always fail and Stone's comments about Krugman indicates he is a big government Keynesian. In many ways, Stone and Kuznick are just old school lefties. They have not abandoned the anti-war position that many current day leftists have since Obama entered the White House. For this they should be applauded. As far as understanding of the economy, this show indicates the tragic amount of misunderstanding that exists about the economy among lefties. 



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11 comments:

  1. Artistically, I loved pretty much all of Stone's movies. From a libertarian standpoint, I never found much I would really disagree with. Stone I think has a good sense of the corruption and overriding desire for power that the elites that rule us have. Having him on the show this week is a real coup. Kudos, Robert!

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  2. That was really good. I appreciate how you called them out on some points but you kept the interview moving without getting bogged down on one subject. Sometimes I like when your guests get frustrated and hang up because its funny to see them squirm, but I worry if it happens too much that you'll have trouble getting good non-free market guests, which, to me, are the most interesting.

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  3. Great interview Robert. You continue to improve.

    I think you are getting better at moving the conversation forward and highlighting differences of opinion without being abrasive about it.

    They are principled Lefties, but like most Lefties are economically illiterate. I love your blowing up of the Glass-Steagal argument.

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  4. It's all fine and dandy to "open a conversation" about history or economics as Stone suggests. The problem is that his interpretation may end up being different from mine (as it happens to be). But, Stone's approach to society (communistic central planning) will allow for only one of those interpretations to be accepted as the official truth and to be imposed even on the dissenters.

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  5. You're absolutely right. Why Rand can't appear and answer questions in such a manner is beyond me.

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  6. Kuznick could certainly use a copy of DiLorenzo's "The Real Lincoln" with his comment on how Lincoln supposedly changed over from a slavery supporter to an abolitionist. (Starts at 27:07)

    Great interview Robert.

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  7. Great job, Bob and Chris, on the interview.

    Mr. Stone performed a signal service for Americans, by opening their eyes to an alternate view of the JFK assassination.

    But, Mr. Stone being on the wrong side of 9/11 hints, to me, that he may be part of the 'controlled opposition.'

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  8. Bob, why didn't you get into the production and pricing of money!? These are the major reasons for our problems not simply cronyism. I think you were way too easy on them. In fact, you said that you had a "few differences economically w/ them." Are you kidding me!? They are major.

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  9. Great interview and post-interview analysis. Sometimes the softly softly approach helps air the ideas and gets some useful interaction going.

    They basically had nothing to reply with to your analysis of the repeal of Glass Steagall. You could have reminded them that Ron Paul also opposed the repeal seeing it as removing access restrictions to those regulatory safety nets for banks that still remained, essentially creating a larger minefield of moral hazard.

    The Bernard Baruch / Keynes gold mining stock deal sounds fascinating. Would it be possible to tell the story sometime?



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  10. STONE apparently, deliberately blows it yet again.

    He BALKED both his 'W and 9/11 flicks ---and has
    BALKED all treatment, or even mention, of this year's
    awesomely relevant 60th Anniverary of the
    RED China, Globalism, mind control and EUGENICS
    'unfriendly'--KOREAN WAR--.

    He has said NOTHING about Hollywood's 4 decades
    of collusion in predictive programming and PC moral
    alibis for the capstone world EUGENICS agenda.

    He has said NOTHING about Hollywood's 'perception
    management' of Globalist handover to the EUGENICS
    friendly slave borg across the Pacific
    ---nothing about conditions there
    ------nothing about the 'consciousness management'
    of their yet unfolding halocaust.

    he continues to deliver his brand of decades STALE
    doper 'decadence' ---and retreads.

    He's even delivered a full blown celebration of
    empire with 'Alexander'.

    His latest work brings NOTHING new to the table
    --not even fresh, hitherto unseen footage, and the material,
    such as it is, is half-baked in presentation and narration.

    And FINALLY ---he begins about 5 decades toooooo LATE!

    STEER CLEAR ---OLIVER ----CAP---STONE.

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