Dr. Strangelove - Keira

The Harvard Business Review article stated that “our political system is doing precisely what it’s designed to do. It wasn’t built to deliver results in the public interest or to foster policy innovation, nor does it demand accountability for failure to do so.” This claim argues that US politics aren’t broken, it’s the entire political system that needs to be fixed. We can see an example of how the system doesn’t listen to public interest anymore in the film. In the movie, there were no civilians shown, no other opinions voiced except those of government officials. Even though the movie was about the government's policy over nuclear weapons, the fact that the public wasn’t given a voice, and then the world was destroyed, seems symbolic of our current political situation. Politicians don’t vote for the public’s good, because they’ll likely lose their job. It’s all about re-election and keeping office rather than solving current problems. This leads to another way our system is broken—no major action is taken on critical issues. In the film, President Muffley was incredibly ineffectual. He didn’t have any idea what laws he passed, the laws he passed meant he was unable to communicate with the pilots as they flew to destroy the world, and his best attempt at resolving the situation was having a nice chat with the Russian leader. Muffley could not do anything to stop the oncoming nuclear war—nor could any of the other politicians. All of the other men in the room sat silent or talked about their love for bombs, none actively tried to resolve the situation. This is exactly how legislation in politics works today. Politicians will talk and talk about their opinions or attack the opposing party, but no significant bipartisan laws ever get passed. For example, we are living in a time where drastic climate-saving laws need to be passed—yet no politician is willing to cross the party divide and compromise on a solution. Just like the inaction in the film led to world destruction, the current political inaction is also letting critical issues go unmitigated.



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