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[ I just realized that a perennial holiday favorite is chock-full of Speculist themes. My musings to that effect follow. Please note that this piece is rife with spoilers. If you've never seen It's a Wonderful Life, I assume that's by choice. ]
First off, I love It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s hokey. It’s sentimental. It’s rife with embarrassing, sometimes cringe-inducing ethnic stereotypes and blatant sexism. (“She’s an old maid…just about to close down the library!”)
It is classic Frank Capra, which accounts in large part for its mid-20th century New Deal vibe that wants to be all for success and the American Dream but that can’t quite let go of some crucial assumptions about class warfare. We hate Potter because he is greedy and evil. We tolerate Sam Wainwright, who is a little too successful, and obnoxious to boot — “HEE HAW!!!” — because he ultimately channels his wealth in a benevolent direction. But we love George Bailey (and his father before him) because they practice an almost profit-free form of capitalism and really don’t care about making money. They just want to do what’s right and help people.
“Chumps!” Potter would say, and maybe he’s on to something.
Who, after all, are the real heroes of the story?
Well, first off, Mary Bailey. When her honeymoon is interrupted by a run on the Building and Loan, she is the one who steps in and announces, “I have two thousand dollars!” It’s not George who thinks of this solution. Would he have thought of it? Maybe, or maybe he would have just kept right on speechifying until every last member of the B&L wandered off to get their 50 cents on the dollar from Potter.
In the parallel universe in which George was never born, Bedford Falls has become a very bleak place called Pottersville. If not for Mary’s fast action, Bedford Falls would have been well on its way to becoming Pottersville even with George. She saved the town.
Note that the movie portrays the interrupted honeymoon as something that happens primarily to George. But for crying out loud, Mary wouldn’t have had to be a bridezilla not to want to part with that cash (granted it was probably mostly George’s savings) even if the future of the town was at stake. However I don’t think she was trying to save the town. She was trying to save her husband’s business. In other words, Mary helped a lot of people and saved the town by acting in her own best financial interests.
We’ll come back to that.
Later, after Uncle Billy loses the $8000 and ruin looks certain for the House of Bailey, Mary is the one who leverages the social media available at the time (that is, going door-to-door), and crowd-sources a solution to the shortfall. What’s George doing while she’s out doing that? Getting drunk, having angst, and learning the meaning of life.
The other big hero of the story is the aforementioned Sam Wainwright. His telegram is the clincher. He authorizes a funds transfer more than three times the amount that’s missing. We don’t know how much Mary and Uncle Billy have collected from the good folks of Bedford Falls, but suddenly it doesn’t matter. Sam takes care of his old friend because he knows that George is a decent guy and that the town needs him.
What does that say about Sam? Well, it says that he, too, is a decent guy. Moreover, it says that, while his motives aren’t as pure as George’s and his personal manner is not as appealing, Sam has something George doesn’t. What he has is the means to recover from Uncle Billy’s ineptitude and / or stand up to Potter (however you want to look at it.)
Sam has these means because he got into plastics when the getting was good and made himself a bundle. In other words, like Mary, Sam Wainwright is able to do great good to the folks of Bedford Falls because he acted in his own self-interest.
The third true hero of It’s a Wonderful Life is Clarence. He’s an angel, a divine being. He’s a sweet old guy, and he obviously cares very much about George and his family.
But he’s also got some skin in the game — he wants to get his wings and become an Angel First Class. In this movie, even angels help others by acting in their own best interests.
No, I’m not trying to tease out a secret Objectivist sub-text in It’s a Wonderful Life. (Nothing can beat the authentic Ayn Rand Christmas Special anyhow.) But I do believe that if Frank Capra were still with us, he would very much enjoy reading The Rational Optimist. Bedford Falls is not too unlike the world as described by Matt Ridley — a world wherein individuals seeking to improve their own circumstances end up improving the circumstances of those with whom they interact.
I don’t think Ridley would agree with Potter’s assessment of the Bailey’s as chumps, but I think he would smile knowingly at the scene wherein one of Potter’s flunkies points out how much value there is in all those houses in Bailey Park.
Finally, there’s George Bailey. He’s a hero, too. He doesn’t exactly save the day; he just consistently makes the world a better place for others. (He might find that he could do this more easily if he took better care of himself, but maybe part of the appeal of this character is that he will never figure that out.)
With the help of Clarence, George comes to realize what a wonderful life he has. The overt message of the film is that his life is wonderful because of all the good he has done for others, directly and indirectly. (“Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn’t there to save them because you weren’t there to save Harry.”) But in the final scenes, where we seeing him joyfully greeting the authorities who are there to arrest him, hugging his kids, and kissing his wife over and over, we see a man celebrating something more than all the good he has done.
In the end, George Bailey is profoundly glad to be alive because…damn it, it’s good to be alive. Clarence describes George’s life as “God’s greatest gift” to him, which sounds right to me, but I realize that many Speculist readers would be uncomfortable with that kind of formulation. So I offer this alternative.
Your existence is profoundly unlikely. Think of thousands of millions-to-one sperm and egg combinations that produced the chain of ancestors that eventually led to you. It’s mind-boggling. And what are the chances that there would ever have been human beings in the first place? What are the chances that life would evolve on this planet? That this universe would come together in a form enabling life?
We are, each of us, so vastly and ridiculously improbable that it only makes sense that we should be delighted by the fact that we exist. Winning a big Lotto jackpot is small potatoes compared with just being here in the first place. Maybe we should all be a bit more like George Bailey, running through the streets shouting ourselves hoarse with “Merry Christmas!” at the realization that this truly is a wonderful life.
[ I didn't list them out as I went, but those Speculist themes include social media, memetics, crowdsourcing, parallel universes, Rational Optimism, and the Attitude of Gratitude. And there are probably others, as well. What did I miss? ]
