Learning Politics With RoboCop

I've always been a very studious guy. I just like learning, and it's paid off in many ways, from graduating at the top of my class in high school to getting my current very good day job. However, not all of my learning has come from textbooks and classrooms. I've actually learned more about financial management from playing building sim video games than from my economics classes, for example. Movies have also bolstered my education beyond the classroom. In fact, I gained full understanding of two very complex political issues thanks to my favorite movie of all time, the 1987 sci-fi/action masterpiece RoboCop.

Now, this is not a review of the movie. I'm not here to talk about the violence that had to be trimmed just to get the movie into theaters. I'm not going to talk about the Christian iconography that director Paul Verhoeven put in like the shot of RoboCop walking on water. I'm not even here to explain why it's my favorite movie of all time; just read my comments in my favorite movies list for that. There are two major real-world political issues that are part of the underlying story of the movie. These two issues show up in the news all the time, but few people outside the DC Beltway and the state capitols really understand them. They certainly weren't brought up in my government classes. However, through examples (some satirical) presented in this movie, the Average Joe can come to grips with them, which is crucial especially in an election year.

The first one is the concept of privatization. Republicans have talked about privatizing Social Security and Medicare for years, claiming it could cut costs. Whether that's true is debatable, but that's not the thing that worries me about privatization. See, privatization is defined in Wiktionary as "The transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership and control". RoboCop shows an admittedly extreme example of that concept, the Detroit Police coming under the control of a private company, Omni Consumer Products (OCP), through a government contract. While Detroit saved money since they didn't have to pay for the cops anymore, OCP wanted profit from their investment. That's right, for-profit police. As demonstrated in the movie, officers meeting certain criteria were transferred to the most dangerous sections of town specifically so one could be killed to be used as the basis for RoboCop. When the police threatened to go on strike, OCP had no intention of negotiating with the union since selling company-controlled police robots like the ED-209 would have been more profitable for the company, despite unreliability that killed a board member. Despite OCP having the resources to give miliary-grade assault weapons to hoods, they denied such technology to the cops as keeping them in one piece would cut into the company's profits.

While this example is extreme, it does paint a very ugly picture of Social Security and Medicare in the hands of private companies in the real world. Private companies are in business to make money, after all. What's to stop them from arbitrarily cutting off Social Security checks to Grandma because they thought she lived too long and costed them too much money? Anyone who's had fights with private insurance companies over paying for a major operation wouldn't want to have to do that in their 80s with privately-controlled Medicare. I got a lot more understanding of this issue through the movie than from any encyclopedia.

The other concept shown in the movie is gentrification. For those who don't know, gentrification is defined in Wiktionary as "The renewal and rebuilding that accompanies the influx of middle class or affluent people into deteriorating areas and often displaces earlier, usually poorer, residents; any example of such a process". The movie highlights this through the discussions involving the building of Delta City. The Old Man (Dan O'Herlihy, from Halloween 3) even mentioned that it was to be built "where Old Detroit now stands". While the effort could provide a major boon to the area with middle- and upper-class income, it'll also actively force out the residents already living there. Even after the construction was complete, the property values would've become too high for the displaced residents. While some may argue the benefits to the city as a whole (especially upscale businesses and residents), it would be a hard sell for those thrown out of their homes.

Again, this is an extreme example; satire is rarely subtle. However, there have been several recorded cases of gentrification throughout the last century. One of the biggest cases was in New York City which was first reported in the 1970s. The five boroughs saw radical shifts in their population distribution as a result of Manhattan becoming a financial center. Richer people and businesses moved in, raising cost of living so high that poorer residents had to move to poorer boroughs like Brooklyn and the Bronx. Just reading a Wikipedia article doesn't get the concept across as well as the movie does.

Now, I freely acknowledge that I didn't notice these things when I first saw RoboCop; I was just 11 at the time. However, I noticed these things and learned more as I got older. While I'm sure I could've gotten privatization and gentrification explained to me in detail by a Political Science professor, it is much more exciting to learn about them through one of the greatest movies ever made. If you haven't seen the original RoboCop in a while, plug it in again. You may be surprised what you learn from it.

I admit I wrote this because I wanted an excuse to talk about my favorite movie. What do you think of my assessment? Let me know, and take care!