It really is a testament to his writing ability that someone as leftist as Joss Whedon could write something as libertarian as Firefly:

Toward the end of the session, one woman noted the anti-corporate themes in many of his movies and asked him to give his economic philosophy in 30 seconds or less.

Whedon’s response?

“We are watching capitalism destroy itself right now,” he told the audience.

He added that America is “turning into Tsarist Russia” and that “we’re creating a country of serfs.”

Whedon was raised on the Upper Westside neighborhood of Manhattan in the 1970s, an area associated with left-leaning intellectuals. He said he was raised by people who thought socialism was a ”beautiful concept.”

Socialism remains a taboo word in American politics, as Republicans congressmen raise the specter of the Cold War. They refer to many Obama administration initatives as socialist, and the same goes for most laws that advocate increasing spending on social welfare programs. They also refer to the President as a socialist, though this and many of their other claims misuse the term.

This evidently frustrates Whedon, who traces this development to Ronald Reagan – the nominal hero of the modern conservative movement. Since then, Whedon believes the country has changed in way that has made it too difficult for regular people to succeed.

And what is the end result?

“We have people trying to create structures and preserve the structures that will help the middle and working class, and people calling them socialists,” Whedon said. “It’s not Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal […] it’s some people with some sense of dignity and people who have gone off the reservation.”

The premise of Firefly and its big screen sister Serenity is a large, powerful centralized government has done some very bad things and covered them up, sometimes by force.

How can someone write something like that, recognizing the dangers of an government that means to do well, yet still advocate for a government that mimics its traits?

In the end of Serenity, the crew finds out that the Alliance tried to make an entire planet more docile and less violent by treating them with a gas. They instead ended up killing the entire planet and creating a class of human monsters.

The captain of the Serenity gave a speech following that discovery. When I heard it, I thought of the history of socialism around the world. I thought of the unintended consequences of an empowered collection of moral busybodies who thought they could improve our lot in life by force of government.

Tell me what you think when you hear it.

“Somebody has to speak for these people. As sure as I know anything, I know this: they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean, a year from now, ten, they’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people better. And I do not hold to that.”

Sadly, Joss Whedon does.

Hat Tip: Breitbart