From a recent email...

I saw the Manchurian Candidate on Friday night. I think the film presents an interesting perspective on society-wide paranoia bordering on hysteria. Even though the plot hinges on a Communist plan within the government to assassinate various officials, I think the real target of the movie is McCarthyism. Not that the Soviets weren't dangerous - they were just as dangerous as a variety of groups like the Islamic extremists in the Middle East/South Asia and fascists in Europe/America are now. But I think the real danger is in reacting with the kind of fear that paralyzes reason and suspends our humanity in a permanent violent paroxism. Fear is what leads to places like Auschwitz, Rwanda, Armenia, Kurdistan, East Timor, Cambodia, Vietnam, South Africa, Siberia, Argentina, Tibet, and even Vidor, Texas, the Trail of Tears, and Montgomery, Alabama. I don't know about you but I'm still holding out for an evolution of our civilization to accompany the ones that allegedly happened in our bodies and brains millions of years ago.