Oliver Stone greeted the young screen writer and indicated that he should sit on the sofa opposite him.
“Frank tells me that you have a new script idea I would be interested in. Tell me about it”
“Well, Mr. Stone, it…”
“Call me Oliver.”
“I’m sorry – Oliver- it starts with a group of guys in a sumptuously appointed library-like room. They have just finished dinner and are easing back in deep leather chairs with good cognac and better Cubans. These are the ‘Rich Men’. They are no longer young but their vitality is still powerful. The screen dissolves and in a manner similar to ‘Godfather Part 2’ the picture reforms, only now it is the 1920s”
“We see a group of young men, but here the similarity to the ‘Godfather Part 2’ ends. The scene is not the hardscrabble streets of the Lower East Side; but rather the initiation room of an Ivy League secret society.”
“Older men are decrying the ‘trust busting’ of Teddy Roosevelt and images of the ‘Teapot Dome’ scandal float by in newspaper headlines. Then we see the new Roosevelt signing banking regulation into law. There are some scenes of war-profiting in World War II, but it doesn’t amount to much. We see attempts to water down financial regulation founder; too many people remember the agony of the depression.”
“But then there is the gift from God – Nixon. The bright young men are now late middle aged but they grasp the significance. They always knew that for their scheme to succeed peoples’ faith in their institutions had to be destroyed. Nixon may have started it, but it was other politicians who brought ruin to their own profession.”
“People who were ‘outs’ slammed the ‘ins’ so that they could win elections but as they succeeded they became the ‘ins’ in what was now an increasingly discredited endeavor. You might ask why they would set up this circular firing squad – well, for the money of course. They were as short-sighted as the youth of the sixties who said never trust anyone over thirty, only to find themselves, too soon, over thirty.
“In tandem with this campaign to discredit politicians the original ‘Rich Guys’ and now their sons (daughters were generally not thought to have the financial savvy) started to work on the other two institutions that had wide spread respect – universities and the media.”
“Here women did find a role as blond bombshell, grenade-throwing, book-writing neocons. The ‘Rich Guys’ promoted them in conjunction with a brigade of conservative radio commentators with limited regard for truth or facts. Ceaselessly they pounded away at the ‘mainstream media’ and the’ educational elites’.
Lumped in with the attacks on the media and education was a campaign to discredit unions and teachers. These were the final bastions of opportunity for the ‘working man’. The ‘Rich Guys’ reach out to the fundamentalist churches. Nothing cements a friendship better than the prospect of mutual gain. The churches realize that they have an opportunity to encode into law their most bigoted and extreme beliefs and the ‘Rich Guys’ (whose only deity is Mammon) find their interesting ideas about evolution another useful tool to water down the quality of schools. The fundamentalist church’s ability to get their ‘flock’ out to vote the ‘Rich Guy’ agenda was a tremendous bonus.
“As the ‘Rich Guys’ started to reap the rewards of their seventy year old campaign, other businesses realized they could ‘piggyback’ on this movement to attack other regulation; regulation of safety, water, air, food, drilling and everything else that is regulated for the benefit of the people.”
“In a final coup the ‘Rich Guys’ create a world in which they are subject to no regulation and any loss is covered by picking the public’s pocket. The money they make is subject to reduced taxes or taxed at capital gains rate and their heirs pay no estate tax.”
The screenwriter stopped and looked, in what he hoped was a respectful but not overeager manner at Oliver Stone.
Stone lay back on his sofa, his head cradled in his hands, staring at the ceiling. Without looking down at the screenwriter he said,
“As I understand it, your plot relies on Americans being completely duped by the ‘Rich Guys’ plan. It relies on them acting completely against their own self interest. It hinges on people being completely credulous and not verifying anything for themselves.”
“You’re correct Mr. Stone,” said the screenwriter, forgetting the invitation to informality.
“It’s an interesting idea, son, but, I’m afraid, not realistic enough for one of my movies.”
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