WALL-E Wars 4; or, the Jury is Now in, and WALL-E is an Ode to Classical Capitalism

Isn't this a really great picture of WALL-E????? What a cute robot.

But anywho. Harrogate's Pulitzer-Caliber coverage of the WALL-E Wars continues with Michael Gerson's latest write-up, which has confirmed Harrogate's growing sense that the WALL-E Wars are pretty much over. Conservative American pundits, social and economic, have claimed this movie for their own as a triumph of Can-Do American Sensibility. You know, sort of like the Horatio Alger novels, except with robots instead of thinly-veiled homosexual New York b'hoys at the center of the action.

For Gerson, WALL-E validates the brilliance of one whose Godlike Status is Secondary only to the Founding Fathers and Ronald Reagan. We speak, of course, of the great economic thinker Adam Smith, he of the Invisible Hand. He who foresaw all possible Contingencies and would have absolutely objected to anything but laissez-faire capitalism as we moveth deeper into the new century.

Smith, Gerson reminds us, had a heart. And WALL-E's purpose isn't any more complex than to remind us of exactly that:

Some conservatives have dismissed "WALL-E" as a crude critique of business and capitalism. This is only true if capitalism is identical to boundless consumerism -- a conviction that Adam Smith did not seem to share. Smith argued that human flourishing requires "good temper and moderation." Self-command and the prudent use of freedom are central to his moral theory. And these are precisely the virtues celebrated in "WALL-E." The end credits -- worth staying to see -- are a beautiful tribute to art and work, craft and cultivation.

"WALL-E" is partly an environmental parable, but its primary point is moral. The movie argues that human beings, aided by technology, can become imprisoned by their consumption. The pursuit of the latest style leads to conformity. The pursuit of pleasure displaces the deeper enjoyments of affection and friendship. The pursuit of our rhinestone desires manages to obscure our view of the stars.

Oh, yeah, Gerson is also pleased that WALL-E celebrates "Hello, Dolly," since apparently Show Tunes represent one of the great (lo! if not the greatest!) American Art forms.