"Fight for freedom" as a concept is not evil, is it?

[Shredr]

I'm feverishly pounding out a script, trying to meet a deadline. One of the themes that has evolved in my script is my characters' fight for freedom, from a tyrant.
Just now, looking back on the pages I've been writing, some of my dialogue is sounding a little like some of Bush's propaganda: the importance of freedom, etc. That freaked me out. I am trying to make these characters sympathetic -- and their struggle believable. Am I writing a Right Wing film without realizing it? These themes aren't inherently evil, are they? Bush has just bastardized them.
Am I over-thinking this?

[wtmusic]

1. Neither is 'self-determination'

they usually go hand in hand

[tuvor]

2. To answer the question in your subject line, of course not.

bush just beat you in using the phrase in his own fiction, and he's got a bigger audience, that's all.

[EC]

3. I don't know, if there is a real tyrant,

and your main character isn't invading other countries, then it isn't Bushy. One thing though, I don't think real freedom fighters pontificate like Bushy, I think the rebels are already convinced to fight, and just need direction. So if your character is sounding like Bush, it could be, you're trying to justify his fight too much...

[Shredr]

5. I've been struggling with this rally-the-troops speech

It's the GLADIATOR "On my mark, unleash hell" moment. And I just got really paranoid that I was regurgitating Bush propaganda.
Of course, I've been up, writing, for the last 72 hours... so I'm a little punch drunk.

Thanks for the input...

[Jesus Saves]

4. "Everybody's had to fight to be free"

So sayeth Tom Petty...

[ugarte]

6. Freedom is one of those pretty sounding words

Is it merely capitalism by another name?

[Shredr]

8. Good point

In this case, not so much capitalism... mmm... well, that's a really good point, I'll have to roll that one through my head. And, if it is, is that such a terrible step from a non-representational dictatorship? As wtmusic said above, it is definitely self-determination.

[ugarte]

11. So are we entitled to attack any nation in the name of self-determination?

Does one country have moral authority over all others?

You know, Hitler said he wanted self-determination for the German-speakers in the Czech Sudetenland and in the Danzig corridor. Self-determination was his big excuse to invade.

Bush tries to make it all sound so simple, but that's characteristic of all demagogues. Good luck with your script.

[Crunchy Frog]

7. There's nothing wrong with fighting for freedom

when it's your own freedom that you're fighting for, and against someone who is genuinely oppressing you. It's quite another thing when you are fighting on behalf of someone else's freedom, when they never asked you to. Especially when fighting for someone else's freedom involves killing and maiming them, occupying them, imprisoning and torturing them, and you just happen to benefit from it by getting access to their natural resources that you need.

Bush is very good at taking words that traditionally mean one thing, and twisting them around to mean something else. He's done the same thing with "clear skies" and "healthy forests".

Just write about what the fight for freedom really means, not what it means in Bush's twisted little universe.

[Shredr]

9. Thank you for that beautiful post.

I'm printing it out and taping it above my desk as I write this. That's the inspiration I needed at this 11th hour point in my writing of this script.

(Pretty tree picture, too.)

[Crunchy Frog]

10. Well thank you,

I'm glad you found it helpful. Good luck with your script.

[Enquiringkitty]

12. Have your character come face to face with standing up for what

he believes in or giving in to the prevailing social pressures and take it back to save some aspect of his life such as friends, social acceptance, or his personal freedom from imprisonment. Show that the proof of talk is the action to back it up.