Ben Shapiro Doesn't Understand It's a Wonderful Life (or Americans)

You may not be aware of this, but I have a particular disdain for the man known as Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire. Not because he's Jewish, though he certainly thinks that affords him a societal carve-out in American culture; not because he's a duplicitous, dual citizenship-having goblin whose loyalties are always in question. Not because he himself is guilty of the very same emotionally charged arguments he often lambasts leftists for. No, it's because he's an inhuman, small hat in a suit whose ideas should be righteously combated at every turn. If you're over the age of 60, Benji Boy's opinion is that you shouldn't be allowed to retire. Work until you die, white boy! Israel needs your tax dollars, and they aren't going to get them with you spending your golden years in relative comfort with your family. He considers you and I, and everyone we know to be easily replaceable economic units. He doesn't care if you're being priced out of your hometown by high taxes or rising crime (some of which is caused by policies he supports; open borders and unfettered immigration). You can just pick up and move away! It's the American tradition! Yet, if we suggested that to his kin over in the Holy Land, we'd be called more slurs than a black guy at a Klan rally. He has no regard for people and their foundations (unless it's Jews and Israel). You're easily replaceable. Whatever it takes to make that line go up.

So is it any wonder why this rat-faced fuck thinks the antagonist of It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Potter, is actually the hero? Essentially, Ben "facts don't care about your feelings" Shapiro believes that Mr. Potter was unfairly maligned by the film because if his more reasonable and fair-minded approach to loan lending when compared to the film's protagonist, George Bailey. That George doesn't do better credit checks on his clients before just handing them money to buy homes. I guess when you're a cold, blood-sucking vampire like Ben, showing compassion to your neighbors and being a pillar of the community would seem alien to him. Which I find amusing, since both Benji and Mr. Potter share a common view of people. Mr. Potter doesn't look at a person and see all their history, their stories, and more in their faces. He sees an economic unit. He sees just another cog in the money machine. It's why George Bailey pleading with the people of Bedford Falls to keep their money in Bailey Brothers Building and Loan is such a crucial plotpoint. He sees the juggernaut that Mr. Potter represents. That greedy, inhuman machine that defiles communities and strips them of their value. No care for the town or its people; just looking to exploit them for his own interests. He begs his neighbors to stay faithful and trust him, that the dark times of the Great Depression will pass. That their community isn't worth sacrificing for short-term gains. If Potter had his way, their history, their stories, and their memories would all be gone. And replaced with something much worse.

In the dark, alternate future where the guardian angel Clarence takes George to witness a world where he was never born, we see the kind of world Mr. Potter would bring about. And it's horrifying. In a dive bar, George sees Mr. Gower, now destitute after having served time for accidentally causing the death of a child. A death George had prevented years ago in the real world. He then sees Violet Bick, previously a potential love interest for George, but in this dark perversion of Bedford Falls, she's a showgirl getting harassed by lecherous men. He finds the woman who should've been his mother, alone and bitter, living in a boarding house. He finds his brother's grave in what should've been his hometown. The life he saved as a young boy, drowned because he wasn't there to save him. His father, Peter Bailey is in financial ruin without George being there to save the business. Without the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan, there was no communal anchor for the people of Bedford Falls. Thus leaving a vacancy to be filled by Mr. Potter, who gutted the town and turned it into a veritable Sodom and Gomorrah. And the final insult, the last bit of poetic irony that stabs at his heart: His wife, Mary, is an old maid living her life as a librarian. Even worse, his and Mary's children are nonexistent. They were never born. Their laughter, their smiles, their unending love and admiration for their father rendered just a memory. All because George, in a throes of despair, wanted to give it all up. He didn't realize what he had until it was gone. All that remains in place of his idealic American home is strip clubs, bars, slums, and of course, Potter's bank. Strewn about are people relishing in vice and degeneracy. It's a horrifying world to behold. But why should Mr. Potter care? He got what he wanted. He owns the town and gets richer, all while what once was Bedford Falls descends deeper and deeper into materialistic nihilism. No sense of community, no foundation, no spiritual connection. Just a soulless husk built upon a foundation of greed and corruption.

Yes, George's views are idealistic and perhaps hokey to some modern audiences. But unlike Mr. Potter, and Ben Shapiro himself, George's most defining characteristic is that he cares. Bedford Falls is his home. Despite how much he tried to get away from it to seek his fortune elsewhere, he still ended up where he needed to be. Even if he himself hated and resented what he felt it cost him in the moment, he would wind up fulfilling the role his father left for him: Being the heart and soul of Bedford Falls. People are their roots. No matter where you go, you'll always carry the history of your birthplace. Perhaps you may not think much of it, but it does matter. Your hometown is as much a part of you as you are a part of it. What Ben ascribes to is a false idea of what America and subsequently what Americans are: That we're inherently nomadic and can just pick up and move anywhere in the country to find better opportunities elsewhere. That you and I are not entitled to our birthplace and should just abandon it when things get difficult. Don't fight for the soul of your home. Just give up and uproot to somewhere else. Again, in his eyes, we're replaceable economic units. Except, that's not true. A New Yorker is going to stick out in a place like Texas. A Californian is going to stand out in a place like Tennessee. We internalize our birthplace. We are our hometowns, our states, and our nation. We are a people with a history.

What It's a Wonderful Life is trying to emphasize, is that people can make connections and impact the lives of others in even the smallest of ways. And it's those connections that are what bind us together, gives us a home, gives us a purpose.  George started out as an adventurous romantic wanting to make a name for himself. Instead, he found himself in a continuous series of false starts. Or did he? Sure, he didn't get to see the world as he had planned to or become an architect designing skyscrapers in the big city, but he found love, got married; sacrificed the money meant for his honeymoon for the people of Bedford Falls. He raised a family with his wife Mary, and continued cultivating the connections his father had made with the townspeople; strengthening those bonds through compassion and care for his neighbors, just as his father did before him. And when all hope seemed lost and he had lost faith in himself, he found it again. And the community he kept alive returned the favor, plus interest.

This isn't considered one of, if not the greatest movie of all time for nothing. It means that much to people and to me. Don't let soulless charlatans like Ben Shapiro tell you differently. He doesn't get it and he never will. In a way, he and Mr. Potter are one and the same: Dispassionate, uncaring, unnatural men whose sole interest is what they can extract from you and yours. In other words: A parasite.

Santa Clause gives Ben Shapiro coal for his stocking this year.

Merry Christmas, everyone!