COMMENTARY | Frank Miller, who has given popular culture such graphic novels such as “The Dark Knight Returns” and “300,” both of which have been inspiration for hit motion pictures, has turned his attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Or, as he suggests calling it, the Occupy Wall Street Bowel Movement.
Miller’s contention is that the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon is an example of frivolous self-indulgence in an era when civilization is locked in a death struggle with Islamist terrorism. He also suggests that many of the occupiers should enlist in the armed forces and learn something about real threats to freedom.
This is very much in keeping with the attitude of the idealized Spartans that Miller depicted in “300” and who performed so admirably in the movie based on the book. One would think that Leonidas and company would have looked upon those squalid encampments rife with crime and disease and wonder if it would be worth the trouble to lock shields and clear them out at the point of their spears.
Indeed, one would think that the Athenians, citizens of a freer city in Ancient Greece, cradle of democracy, science, and art, would have looked askance at the Occupy Wall Street folks. Socrates would have wandered among them, asking embarrassing questions, leading the occupiers to a realization of their folly. Aristophanes would have written a comedic play about them, providing entertainment and enlightenment to all. Themistocles and Aristides would have debated whether a law should be passed, similar to what existed in Athens, to allow for the exile of people who had proven too obnoxious.
It is comforting to know that despite their pretensions of being part of the 99 percent, the occupiers are a tiny minority, even of America’s discontented youth. More representative are those who actually follow Miller’s call to serve freedom in a distant land among unfriendly strangers. Even those who eschew the uniform, but work like beavers to make a better life for themselves either in a trade or in college and then a profession, are on a far higher plane than the whiny layabouts who complain that their degrees in victim studies have not gotten them a six-figure job.