I have gone through quite the political journey as a person, starting as a Neo-Con during the Bush Administration to finding a nice little home in the Libertarian and Anarcho-Capitalist circles. All of my life, though, I have loved film and television. Often times films and characters have been shown to promote Libertarian and Anarchist qualities or ideas; however, some of these characters have been misrepresentations of what Libertarianism and Anarchism stand for. Before we go further, simple definitions of Libertarians and anarchists should be established.
Libertarian: a person who believes that people should be allowed to do and say what they want without any interference from the government
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Anarchism: a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups
Misrepresentations of Anarchism and Libertarianism include, but are not limited to:
Captain America ("Captain America: Civil War")
I will preface this by saying the portrayal itself was correct, but the average response to it and how people THINK a character should be was wrong. After "Captain America: Civil War" hit theaters, an article in Salon referred to Captain America as a "douchey Libertarian". The problem with articles such as this is that they neglect the source material to such a degree that they seek to pervert the essence of the character. This article erroneously refers to Captain America as a New Deal Democrat. The problem is that Captain America has ALWAYS been a Libertarian. Maybe not in name, but philosophically and in practice. Ms. Marcotte implies that this aspect of his character has not been present within all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which would be false. Referring back to the definition of Libertarian, we can see that Cap is a Libertarian in the belief that "the safest hands are still our own". To expand on this further, one could argue that all superheroes are libertarian in one sense or another, being that they act outside of the law and without government authority. Within all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America has only sought use of force against people (Hitler and the Nazis) who were using force upon others. In "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", Captain America fights a government organization that seeks to spy on the populace and predict people's behavior obtained through a massive surveillance program. And in "Civil War", he does what he does for the good of the people, not being subject to government agendas.
Anarky ("Arrow")
A villain in the popular TV show, Anarky is presented as a violent, lawless psychopath. This goes against the core of what Anarchism is about. The vast majority of Anarchists do not promote violence. Anarchists also do not want chaos like Anarky does. Anarchism does not advocate for a society without rules. Anarchism advocates for a society without rulers. There is a substantial difference in these sentiments. If there were no rules, of course, there would be chaos; however, if we are in a society without rulers, we have only freedom of association as well as voluntary exchanges. Anarchists, like Libertarians, don't believe in the use of force to get ideas across.
Jack Swagger (WWE RAW & SmackDown)
In the early going of 2014, professional wrestler Jack Swagger was presented in a Tea Party Libertarian type of gimmick, complete with a "We the People" catchphrase and a titan-tron backdrop of the Constitution during his entrances. The problem of this was that in the early going, Jack Swagger was almost exclusively portrayed as being a racist, as his primary feud was against Alberto del Rio. In reality, the vast majority of Libertarians (or libertarians) are not racists and do not initiate force. See, libertarians typically abide the Non-aggression principle, which states:
that violation of these (Libertarian) views is aggression and is an illegitimate encroachment upon another individual's life and freedoms.
Despite being in professional wrestling, a narrative that asserts all of your problems can be solved by the initiation of force, the inconsistencies continue with respect to the presentation of libertarian ideals.
Libertarian and Anarchist philosophy can be portrayed in the right way, such as V for Vendetta; however, it would be better if you are going to present an ideology to do it in the right light. I do not think that is unreasonable to ask.
