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 (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 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 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, , 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 , 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 : 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

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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. 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 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, 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 ’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. e 9/11 world—completely missed the of the Soviet secret service, General conclusion sees a concert in mark.

Spectre (2015/Columbia Pictures)

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For the most part, the SPECTRE last understood by Fleming as a formula has enabled the Bond characteristic of communism. universe to maintain enough Of course, a feature of communism  exibility to enable the franchise is the highly-planned, utopian to survive through the stages of the idealism of many of its adherents. Cold War and beyond. However,  e most obvious instances of this it would be a mistake to regard are Stromborg in e Spy who Loved the overt omission of communist Me who wanted to recreate a better villains as an avoidance of that society underwater, while ideology. In fact, what the Soviet’s in carries similar plans represented is what Bond’s non- for a space-based society shaped by Soviet villains also represent. eugenics. Despite being a ‘blunt instrument’ A SYMBOL OF of the British government, Bond best Daniel Craig as James Bond 007 COMMUNISM represents the spirit of individualism that is only possible in the West. He is Existential threats to the liberal- unawareness are all foreign unpredictable, yet  exible to deal with democratic West in the 20th and to our character…But when any unexpected change in situation. 21st centuries all have something the moment comes for action Like a resourceful businessman, he in common: ideology.  anks to [the British and French] will employs ingenuity to solve problems, German and Japanese nationalism, realise that these tough grey- and frequently makes an opportunity European fascism and global faced little men…are a vastly out of a dire predicament. His love communism, the 20th century was di erent force from the ill- of alcohol, gambling, and for a time, one of the most destructive periods equipped gun fodder of 1914. smoking, suggests he has no time in human history—and all were Later, Fleming wrote that while for the Nanny State. He is never driven by a fundamental con ict the Soviet Union could provide bureaucratic in how he approaches of ideologies. Today, the West faces ‘the very greatest strategic value his job. global terrorism, inspired by radical to the Allies’ against the Axis, the Compare this to any number Islamism, while a loss of faith and Russians ‘would be an exceedingly of Bond villains who, despite being belief in the virtues of the central treacherous ally’ who would ‘not specialists in creating chaos and tenets of Western Civilisation— hesitate to stab us in the back the sowing discord in their enemies, which underpin our liberties—is moment it suited her’. struggle to deal with the chaos weakening us from within. SPECTRE and other Bond that Bond imposes on them. When Firmly setting the Bond novels villains however, are seemingly Bond is (temporarily) captured, in the Cold War—and having not recognisably ideological. For they can’t help but reveal the details reported on a show trial Moscow in various reasons, they appear to of their plotting—up until that 1933— well understood seek power or wealth for the sake point, everything has gone to plan. the nature of Communism. At the of obtaining wealth and power.  ings quickly fall apart when height of Stalin’s purges, Fleming And yet, these villains share many Bond, unpredictably for the villain, travelled to Moscow for the Reuters characteristics with collectivist escapes to save the day. It was this News Agency where he covered the totalitarians. individualism that was able to defeat show trial of six engineers from A characteristic common to the East on so many occasions. the British company Metropolitan- most Bond villains is a penchant So, what will the next Bond  lm Vickers, who were accused of for highly elaborate, meticulous be about?  e answer is it will depend , spying and bribery. To the planning. Top-down management on whether the  lmmakers are true Foreign O ce in London, Fleming from the megalomaniacal chairman. to the roots of Ian Fleming’s creation. wrote that the Soviets were not to be As cultural historian Jeremy Black Fleming understood the threat of underestimated: described it: communism, and that the individual It is impossible to judge these men  e villains believe in planning could stand against the worst of by English standards.  eir and, indeed, represent a statism—and win. If the  lmmakers fatalism, their lack of critical con ation of plutocratic fail to understand this, then it will be a standards, their general and bureaucratic man, the 007  lm in name only. R

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