Do * and the neocons see themselves as Alexander?

[Skidmore]

I've been watching that movie this afternoon. Alexander marches into the Persian empire, to Babylon, deposes the Shah, and is greeted with showers of rose petals, sweets, and song and dance. His soldier complain they are kept away from their homeland to "build roads and dams in Asia" while their families languish back in Macedonia. He sees his mission in the world as that of freeing enslaved peoples. As he follows his lofty mission, he becomes craven and mad. A man who rose to great heights with little experience and who at once believed he was divine and feared to be perceived of as weak.

I found myself thinking, as I watched this movie, that this is how the neocons see themselves--in a romantic restaging of Alexander's conquest of the ancient east. Then I got creeped out by them even more.

[Vincardog]

1. Yes but they started craven and mad

[msongs]

2. "gay" alexander..or murderous tyrant alexander? nt

[aquart]

3. Alexander was an accomplished mass murderer by 16.

That's when he won Daddy's approval by taking care of the Celtic problem.

And nobody has been able to prove he murdered Daddy. Although, if Daddy had died overseas during his Persian campaign, the new king would have been one of Daddy's generals because the kingship required the acclamation of the army. By having Daddy die before he and his army left town, Alexander was able to get the acclamation for himself, and send assassins to kill the competing, already out of town general. But I'm sure that aspect of the situation never occurred to him. Never. Uh huh. (Did I mention that as soon as that general was acclaimed by the army, HE would have sent assassins to kill Alexander and all his family? Losers didn't get to live, back then. But I'm sure it never entered Alexander's curly little head.)

Thing is, Alexander did learn from his Daddy and used his methods of warfare in all his victories. George, not so much.

[Moochy]

4. Who is Hephastion?

But would that make Jeff Gannon the equivalent of Hephaistion? or is Hephaistion more properly Victor Ashe? (runs off and dons bio-hazard suit)

Colin Farrel was so miscast in that role. Overall he ruined what might have been just a average bad movie, and his performance turned it into a stinkfest of epic proportions. Much of this must be layed on Oliver Stone's lap, but I wonder if he even looked at the daily rushes when they were filming ? Farrell's expressions are so mismatched and his bug eyed, frothy mouth does nothing but make you think that he's showing a real panic attack. Granted the dialogue was laughable, but still. Glad I waited til this came around cable.

[onager]

7. Farrell in that damn lion skin...

...was one of the most hilarious things in the movie.

Alexander wore the lion skin when he wanted to emulate his hero, Heracles. Colin Farrell just looks like a little kid wearing lion jammies.

(The scene is near the end, when Alexander drinks the huge bowl of wine that sends him to his deathbed. According to one ancient legend, the bowl contained poison provided by none other than Aristotle. Who was getting revenge for one of his family members killed by Alexander.)

FYI, I'm writing this from Alexandria, Egypt. There are statues, busts and monuments of What's-His-Name all over the city, as you might suspect.

One story says the Egyptyians who actually built the city flatly refused to use the name "Alexandria." They brought the Macedonians in to kick the Persians out...a repetitious theme in Egyptian history...so they saw themselves as just swapping one bunch of foreign conquerors for another. The construction workers resented that so much, they couldn't bring themselves to use Alexander's name. So they just called the whole city of Alexandria "the building site."

History Geeks probably got the same laugh I did at the beginning. Anthony Hopkins is playing Ptolemy I Soter, Alexander's general who later made himself "Pharoah" of Egypt.

Hopkins is gazing over the Eastern Harbour of Alexandria, at the famous Pharos Lighthouse...which wasn't completed until some years after Ptolemy I died.

[EFerrari]

5. This is going to sound insane but I think Monkey Boy sees

himself as a business wiz and is out to prove it. Remember, it was widely reported in early 2001 that he would run the government as a "CEO" president?

Forget that he never had a single success as an actual businessman, that's reality and he doesn't go there. lol

I'm reading "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" so that might be coloring but, Monkey Boy is too pragmatic to actually believe all the jingoism they whisper into his ear. To him, saying those words must just be another task in his busy Executive day.

[formercia]

6. Does the name Alexander Strategies strike a chord?

Lobbying group founded by DeLay's boy and tied to Abramoff scandal, and now out of business because they are radioactive?

http://ameri.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/10/15149/2862

http://www.ourfuture.org/issues_and_campaigns/accountablecongress/delay/index.cfm

Alexander Strategies Group, the lobby shop of former DeLay chief of staff Ed Buckham, is a focus of a federal investigation into congressional corruption. Alexander Strategies, once the shining example of the K Street Project, is tied to two huge corruption scandals, the Abramoff scandal and the scandal surrounding convicted Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). ASG shared clients with Abramoff and even tried to hire him at one point. They also lobbied on behalf of Group W, the company owned by Brent Wilkes, one of two defense contractors that Cunningham admitted to accepting bribes from. Also at issue is the $115,000 paid to DeLay's wife Christine by the lobbying firm and what, if any, work she did on its behalf. (New York Times, 1/8/06)