Gonzalez, in his book Popular Culture as Art and Knowledge, provides examples of American movies drawing parallels to the major events in the history of the U.S. The author of the book tends to believe that some political events and actions of the American government are criticized in several movies.
The fictionalization of Nazis and Japanese controlling the American land brings up thoughts to the observers that Nazism was brought and imposed on the U.S. and that the sacrifice the country made during World War II and the Cold War was eventually meaningless. The movies also draw the situation when the government has secret authority, and non-accountable elements become dangerous and far from democratic.
Gonzalez provides an example of the Iraq war the United States led by the support of neoconservatives and the government. The author states that the actions of the U.S. government in Iraq in 2002 were controlled by unelected policy elites that had hostile and aggressive intentions in leading foreign politics of the country.
The Fallen Hero and The Man in the High Castle are mentioned as examples of the U.S. actions in Iraq, underlying that the government was ready to destroy everything that stood in its way. The movies also bring up the idea that military adventurism and tortured tactics of the U.S. military in Iraq were not supported by all the population. Gonzalez states that there is evidence proving the fact of torture in both Iraq and Afghanistan operations.
The parallels of torture tactics are met in the Nazi’s actions controlling the U.S. in Stormfront and The Man in the High Castle. Gonzalez explains how these movies hint at Bush’s politics on Afghanistan when the president took the prisoners and tortured them, called “enemy combatants,” breaking Geneva Convection human rights protection during wars.
The facts of torturing prisoners were confirmed by the American press and other independent sources. Torturing in these movies represents the major purpose of Nazi and Imperial Japanese policies to control people and make them obey. Gonzalez brings up the idea of American philosopher Richard Rorty that states that the idea of intersubjective agreement is usually used by the repressing, controlling states.
The intersubjective agreement is a way of controlling the minds of the population by fashioning, fostering, and imposing the agreement on some ideas that make society coherent. This is a way dictatorships and repressive governments reach political and social stability.
Thus, Gonzales underlines how movies such as The Man in the High Castle, Stormfront, and others argue the military and torture tactics of the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan, which leads to the demoralization of the current population and the dangerous consequences for the country.
Moreover, such series as House of Cards, Games of Thrones, and Star Trek: Enterprise underline the instability and crisis of American democracy. To save and maintain the latter, politicians use threats, torture, and racism which is critiqued by Gonzalez and, in his opinion, underlined in the popular movies and series of contemporary culture.