Envy Is The Central Fact Of American Life

[Music] [Music] Los Angeles there's no City like it it's a big slab of American economic cultural and political power it's here that myths are made stars born and politics mixes with celebrity and it's the home perhaps the unlikely heart of America's last and lonely disident and radical I think it's clear you Charmed by some of the the US presidents Lincoln and Franklin Rosevelt in particular but in writing about them you always notice the centralization of of power in Washington under their Rule and the expansion of American American power across the continent and then around the globe you you stand opposed to both do you a proud American isolationist I don't know that I'm particularly proud but I certainly am an isolationist in general but nobody knows what the word means uh isolationism is the lion of George Washington the lion of John quinsey Adams the main line of American foreign policy which is uh Washington said you know that is the general said Nations should not have special enemies or special friends Nations only have interests and how do you rate this President well it's the worst in our history and it's it's Eerie it it makes you a real Manakin to think that this could have happened to to us and those of us who know are immersed marinated in the Constitution the Bill of Rights are horrified at what's going on and and it's the worst because of the the scale of the adventure overseas and the centralization of power and the executive Wing in Washington well also the deliberate dismantling of the Bill of Rights you see we have no place to turn to where if you want to stop this this Juggernaut well where do you go well normally we'd go to the Judiciary we go to the court so you go to the appell court if that didn't work you try the Supreme Court all full of very right-wing Bush Heights so that won't work or you would go to your Congressman your Senator he's been paid for or Worse he's waiting to be paid for because he wants to run for president so he's useless go to the executive the executive is a monster now for the first first time in my life there is no place to turn we're in a cage and and information from outside doesn't get to us so we're cut off from information we're cut off from orderly Democratic processes to protect ourselves and we are a drift for over 30 years gadal wrote his books and essays from a house built on a cliff ledge at Rella along Italy's pretty breathtaking a Meli Coast sharing it with longtime partner Howard Austin His Image was angry critic sitting in judgment on his country from [Music] afar in reality he'd never abandoned the United States and now with the death of his partner he sold Rell and lives in Hollywood it's here he holds court with friends in journalism and movies conversation politics near politics Nixon also had those of us who have studied him no conscious mind the unconscious was just working all the time and just as US presidents expanded their nation's power and produced the American Century that's what understood the dal's being watching now G let's through some of the US presidents in your portrayal of of Franklin Roosevelt um behind the charm you you detect someone who wants a new deal not just for America but for the whole world and part of that new deal is really breaking up the British Empire and opening the British British Empire to American Goods making the American Market well that was to be first step yeah he was more ambitious than that I mean he was very anti-british this poor Churchill never figured this out that this was no friend of England and toward the end after yta Roosevelt said you know you're going to have to give up India when this when this now the war is winding down thus the emperor spoke and Churchill says there many witnesses to this scene church WIll said well as quickly as that this is going to be chaos if we suddenly leave there was and roselt said it has to be done the colonial European Empires have come to an end this is the first UK from the emperor and Churchill said well what do you want me to do get on my hind legs like your little dog F and the empress said yes that is how the world was transformed and then Franklin was followed by Harry Truman who you believed in the oh he to me you especially dislike him don't you very much he created the American Security State National Security State he also uh militarized the country the beginning of our huge uh debts for the military uh he brought in loyalty owes for everybody who worked in government from the vice president down to the janitor in the capital isn't it an iron law of history that big economic Powers become big military Powers something we're perhaps seeing with China at the present time isn't it simply inevitable that America is going to be exerting clout to protect its trade roots and Investments around the world well that was used to be known as balance of power but we did it through diplomacy generally and buying off Foreign governments and paying for leaders occasionally killing one like lumumba in the Congo if we didn't like them we we did something about it we we were just the shadow of England I mean it's exactly what the Brits have been doing and they were all for us taking the Hawaiian Islands taking Samoa moving ever closer eventually taking the Philippines which gets us to the coast of Asia Australia's Got A got a special perspective on this because in 1942 we faced the real Prospect of a Japanese invasion and fortunately America was engaged in the region because of the Philippines yeah and it was a lucky Stoke for us Australians have got a a more benign view of America's World clout than you as a an allp purpose American critic would have well I would suppose that it was nice when you get a attacked by uh Japan that the United States just with all its wealth forget our military prowess we just we had all that money which Hitler never took into account so to have an older brother to your East who could enter the lists on your side is is benign we're grateful to the American taxpayers for picking up a lot of Australia's defense expenditure I mean without that American insurance policy Australia would have to have to spend a lot more on our Continental defense yeah the only down payment you made was Alice Springs the American bases the American Communications bases yeah that was which rendered us uh for a while at least a nuclear Target [Music] yes enchanted with politics gadal flirted with the idea of his own political career in 1960 he stood unsuccessfully for the US Congress related by marriage to Jackie Kennedy he had the support of JFK but Hollywood and movies are a big part of bdal this is the section of Hollywood where back in the 20s the silent day all the movie stars lived along here in 1955 vdal began work as a screenwriter for MGM he took me to the film lot now owned by Sony Pictures here in 1958 he co-wrote the screenplay of Ben her piece of Roman history from someone ever ready to chart America's declined for now as a motion picture Ben her has inspired enthusiastic Acclaim in every corner of the [Applause] earth back of there so that's where you wrote Ben her I was right in that office there there and just down the corridor was was the producer of the film with all these mockups of uh Roman galle and sea sea battles and so on these were great toys you know we had to play with then we had um a general Aaron boy you'd call for if you wanted some have your script delivered to the producers down the hall that was Jack Nicholson and we all knew that Jack was reading the scripts as he hurried along the corridors to deliver them he was a very quick reader so he ended up knowing everything the MGM was making the movies spell out the myths of the American people they're a great propaganda machine of course they are and have been used deliberately by political administrations from 1912 on woodro Wilson was running for president for the first time in 1912 then when World War I began it was very unpopular of the American people so he got a guy called George creel who's a great advertising genius to popularize the war and he came out here to make sure that they would make movies about the terrible hun and uh this became the co-equal capital of the United States why is the the American Progressive Movement that once in chanted my generation of of American watch is just so weak well it's dead because there are not the people aren't educated now and I'm talking about the top people too they we live in a sort of bubble with laughing gas being pumped in all the time everybody envis us because we're so fat and pink and Rosy bad people want to kill us and there's a kind of they just work on a national paranoia how would Hillary Clinton go as the the Democratic standard Bearer in the next election well she's got a lot of baggage as they say you must remember they've had 8 12 what is it years since they became Bill became president uh to smear her and it is just daily at every level particularly among the more ignorant Americans white men by and large are the most ignorant it seems she made a very funny remark when they were studying the polls to see where she was strong and weak in New York state they discovered that she was really weakest with white men and she was meeting with all these pollsters and seist she said they said why do you think that is Mrs Clinton she said well I've been told I don't know if it's true that I remind too many of them of their first wife if you had been president at the moment of the September 11 attacks how would you have reacted what what would your address to Congress have consisted of I have just spoken to the head of interpal and we are asking for the arrest of these people we have some of their names we'll have more later they are criminals I wouldn't ask for declaration of war because there's no country involved would you have taken out the the Taliban bases in Afghanistan which had harobed these people no we could we could help out the interpal if inal hasn't got the men or the the means of doing it yes we would cooperate with them send the FBI over and do some dirty tricks I'm not above that but uh no it was uh it's a police action which should have been kept at that after all it's Osama Bin Laden and 11 sodi Arabians so what do we do we smash up uh Afghanistan and Iraq now we're threatening Iran don't think we're not going to try something there which will just be ghastly for us because we're on a losing Wicket here we have less and less power and less and less money in other words the American Military machine is fully stretched in Iraq it can't take on any more Ventures it has reached entropy and with your knowledge of History you see what happens to empires in the past you see the same rules at work here and if so how far Advanced are they well we'll end up somewhere between Argentina and Brazil with at least a good soccer team that'll be about it thank you he asked me was it okay I said yes his 81st year still at his desk some time in post vdal America we know whether we are witnessing and living through what Vidal has described as the four of the Lost Empire

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 52,808

Keywords: journeyman pictures, news, current affairs, world news, documentary, gore vidal, politics, satire, united states, america, american politics, election, george bush, iraq war

Id: 5HbIFuVe_j8

Length: 15min 32sec (932 seconds)

Published: Mon May 09 2016