THE POLITICS OF JAMES B ND The world of 007 reveals a deeper subtext to a landscape of high-tech gadgetry and martinis, writes Morgan Begg. keep and enjoy the fruits of your own In these cases and more, the labour as greedy, and which pushes individual is being asked to make MORGAN BEGG higher taxes as people paying their fair sacri ces for the ‘greater good’ of Research Scholar at the share. Or when laws are enacted to society. It is a classic calling card of Institute of Public A airs and Editor, FreedomWatch restrict free speech, on the basis that collectivism. A collectivist world-view o ensive speech might o end racial regards individuals as belonging to groups and cause untold social unrest. a wider society, and whose value as ore and more it seems Likewise, when mandatory data individuals extends only as far as it that the place and retention laws were passed in 2015, serves the purposes of the collective. importance of the Australians were told that everyone’s In contrast, an individualist Mindividual is taking privacy would have to be undermined world-view sees society as more of a backseat in Western societies. to combat terrorism (never mind that a free-association of individuals, Symptoms of this include political economic regulators such as the ATO whose value is inherent and discourse which regards the desire to and ASIC also enjoy these powers). inalienable. Individualism is at Volume 68 I 1 THE POLITICS OF JAMES BOND R the core of western liberalism, technology and high-tech gadgetry by the end of the 1950s, where and deserves modern day hero. has been a friend of 007. However in the antagonists were typically the It is perhaps ironic that the Spectre, the gadgets are taking over. Soviets, or villains collaborating greatest hero that represents rugged Bond nds himself embroiled in a with Communist Russia. However, individualism is a ctional character, plot to pool the surveillance assets of in adapting the novels to lm, whose life is singularly devoted to the intelligence agencies of the world, an overly cautious approach saw Her Majesty’s Secret Service. is is, creating a multinational surveillance the presence of the Soviet Union of course, James Bond. state. In a rush to modernise the minimised, in favour of such Development of the next lm in intelligence services, and acting organisations as SPECTRE. the enduring James Bond franchise is swi ly in defence against terrorism reportedly underway, with producers (all-too familiar justi cations we’ve INDIVIDUALISM IS AT THE POLITICS OF searching for a ‘relevant’ storyline. An heard in recent years), control of this THE CORE OF WESTERN analysis of the franchise throughout program is unwittingly given to the >LIBERALISM, AND the years reveals that real world villains of the piece. roughout, DESERVES A MODERN DAY HERO. issues are routinely used to make Bond’s chief, M, consistently this ctional world more relevant to highlights the illiberal nature of the contemporary concerns. What the plan, at one point labelling it ‘George In Fleming’s novels, the Soviet history also suggests is that Bond’s Orwell’s worst nightmare’. connections were direct. Casino individualism will overcome yet At the centre of this are the Royale featured Bond being set up JAMES another centrally planning villain. eponymous Spectre, a multinational to play—and bankrupt—a treasurer While the last lm in the crime and terrorism organisation, of a Soviet-controlled trade union franchise, 2015’s Spectre, may not last portrayed in 1971’s Diamonds in a high stakes game of baccarat have won over audiences, it was surely Are Forever. It ought to return in in France; Live and Let Die had not for the fact that a central theme the next lm but if it doesn’t, any Bond in the United States to tackle was the use and abuse of mass state- new villains will inevitably follow in Soviet in uences in the Black surveillance. Indeed, the plot was its stead. Megalomaniacal villains Power Movement; From Russia with perhaps more timely than ever. Since with outlandish plans for global Love concerned a SMERSH plot the release of the previous instalment, supremacy are as much a part of the to assassinate Bond and discredit B ND 2012’s Skyfall, western governments Bond universe as dry martinis. the British secret service, while the have been characterised by an Interestingly, SPECTRE (it was eponymous villains in Dr. No and increasingly intrusive attitude towards formerly an acronym) was Bond’s G o l d n g e r were both members internet regulation. rst villain, and was implicitly but or nanced by the Soviet Union, e nature of the US mass- inherently representative of the respectively. surveillance program—until it was major fears of the early decades of Around the same time Gold nger revealed by Edward Snowden—was the Cold War: the Soviet Union. was published, Fleming was meeting considered the stu of conspiracy e legacy of these lms have with lmmakers to adapt (what were theorists, while ‘net neutrality’ nds long dominated Bond’s world, which at that point) stories rmly set in US President Barack Obama himself have consistently seen James Bond’s the Cold War. Yet when it came to among its supporters. In Australia, resourceful individual, unique to the adapting the novels for the big screen, the past 12 months has seen the West, overcome the collectivism of it was feared that the Cold War would government add numerous laws the Communist East. not endure long enough for a Soviet governing internet activity—including villain to be of much relevance. powers to police cyberbullying and THE HISTORY e solution was SPECTRE, a amendments to copyright laws which OF SPECTRE multinational crime organisation, can nd websites taken o ine. whose ideology was merely the In the same month that Spectre e use of SPECTRE is at rst pursuit of power. ‘World domination. was released in Australian cinemas, glance curious, since the Soviet Same old game’, Bond sighs in the a mandatory data retention regime Union was plainly available to be rst adaptation, Dr. No. It’s a formula came into force, giving numerous directly portrayed. In fact, this could that’s stuck. government agencies unwarranted have very easily been the case. Ian In hindsight, of course, those access to the private data of citizens. Fleming had achieved considerable fears were unfounded and the Prior to Spectre, advanced success with his James Bond novels 1960s was indeed a tense period of APRIL 2016 | IPA Review 33 R THE POLITICS OF JAMES BOND Volume 68 I 1 CONTINUED DESPITE BEING A attended by a number of British and the Cold War. Yet across six lms ‘BLUNT INSTRUMENT’ Soviet ocials, with M revealing OF THE BRITISH in that same decade, Communist > that Gogol has persuaded the Soviet GOVERNMENT, BOND antagonism was nearly completely BEST REPRESENTS government to allow a Russian cellist substituted out. THE SPIRIT OF to perform in the West. e era of Dr. Julius No became a member INDIVIDUALISM THAT Perestroika and Glasnost is plainly of SPECTRE, who acted alone to IS ONLY POSSIBLE IN represented (although the appearance disrupt American rocket tests. e THE WEST. of the mujahedeen took it to the Soviet plot in From Russia with Love absurd). is exibility likely allowed becomes a SPECTRE plot, with chief Gogol, was a friendly gure. the franchise to transition seamlessly villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld comparing When détente ended and beyond the end of the Cold War. the Cold War superpowers with tensions renewed in the 1980s, In the 1990s, Pierce Brosnan Siamese ghting sh who battle each Soviet antagonism was featured— was the Blairite-Bond. Youthful, other, while his smarter sh waits for but only half-hearted at best. reinvigorated, and like Blair’s ‘New a tired victor to emerge. Goldnger General Gogol’s attempt to acquire Labour’, seen as a more exciting loses his Soviet connections, but advanced British technology from departure from his predecessors. obtains a small nuclear bomb from Greek smuggler Aristotle Kristatos, However, the plots themselves are Red China—who do seek economic is foiled when Bond throws the of inconsistent relevance. e 1995 instability in the West. machine in question o a cli. Gogol GoldenEye worked—as it dealt with e Spectre formula is laughs when Bond quips ‘at’s instability in post-Communist remarkable in retrospect in that the détente, comrade. You don’t have Russia—while Alec Trevelyan’s plots West’s chief adversaries of the day it. I don’t have it’. He later speaks to disable every computer system and were nearly totally absent. However, forcefully against a plan from a cause nancial chaos was a reection it may have made Bond exible fellow Soviet general to launch a real of an increasingly digital society (fears enough to maintain relevance. war against the West. which were particularly prevalent A thawing of relations between In e Living Daylights, Bond in the UK, as Black Wednesday had East and West in the 1970s was makes an uncomfortable alliance only occurred less than three years reected, with the Bond universe (uncomfortable for viewers, that is) earlier). e Brosnan lms steadily perhaps going so far as to predict the with the Afghan mujahedeen, to declined and by 2002’s Die Another end of the Cold War altogether. e inltrate a Soviet airbase run by a Day—a story involving North Korean Spy who Loved Me saw Bond work renegade general—himself working antagonists in the immediate post- with a Russian spy, while the head with an American arms dealer.