Is Silk Road (2021) capitalist propaganda?
Written and directed by Tiller Russell, Silk Road (2021) is a film about Silk Road (the darknet website). Based on the true-ish story of the site’s creator, Ross Ulbricht, and the DEA agent, Rick Bowden, who goes after him.
Like many cat-and-mouse stories, this one invites you to choose sides. The waters become murkier as the story continues.
Both main characters might have good intentions, however misguided. They also both make plenty of seemingly immoral decisions.
It’s easy to disregard any underlying theme inside a narrative like this one. Bad guys did bad things and there were consequences. Considering that both the actor’s roles are based on real people, let’s broaden the context for them a bit.
Let’s explore the circumstances that influence the motivations of these two flawed heroes.
GENERATIONAL DIVIDE
DEA Agent Rick Bowden represents the “Boomer” audience who may watch this film and not understand anything about the Internet beyond reading memes on Facebook.
Bowden struggles with modern technology and director Russell wants the audience to relate to him. Bowden feels ignored and ridiculed by the younger agents in his department. Similarly, older adults who find the complexities of virtual life difficult might feel the same way.
The film’s dialogue reinforces the idea that this tech-impaired segment of society are victims. They just want to “do things the way we’ve always done” because it worked for them. They found success. There’s no reason to change and improve our systems. Why bother? They already work perfectly fine.
Why is this problematic? When any group with majority control in society feels victimized, it’s understandable (from their perspective) to go on the offensive. To do their part to weaken the other side. To take what they feel is rightly theirs.
Because this population has a high hierarchy, they can act in their self-interest. They perceive themselves as victims, and they assume their behavior is an act of desperation.
Bowden wasn’t a victim, but he felt like he was. He was provided psychiatric care to treat his drug and alcohol addiction, instead of given jail time. He blew an undercover operation (repeatedly) in his former DEA department and was allowed to return to work to collect his pension — instead of losing his job. He took advantage of his role as an agent to steal Bitcoin to pay for his daughter’s special needs school. The school his family was privileged enough to access in the first place.
Herein lies the discrepancy. How can a segment of society with so much opportunity also have a victimhood mindset? More importantly, how does that mindset affect their behavior toward members of different social groups?
In Silk Road, we see Bowden’s obsessive, criminal actions and we are left with several questions about his motivations behind those actions.
Were his actions influenced by a spiteful desire to “win” during a time in his life when he felt like he was losing?
Did he want to take down the Silk Road website because he felt like Ross Ulbricht represented those same millennials in his department that mocked his bumbling tech skills?
Was stealing Ulbricht’s Bitcoin a protest against the young agents who thought his skills weren’t useful anymore? Or that he wasn’t clever enough?
How does the ageism Bowden encounter shift his mindset? When an entitled sub-society experiences discrimination for the first time, is Bowden a portrait of how they would react?
THE STATE
It’s not unfair to say that the center of this film is a discussion about politics. Specifically, libertarianism and capitalism.
Ross Ulbricht is an outspoken libertarian who believes “every action we take outside of government control strengthens the market and weakens the state.” It’s easy to dismiss Ulbricht’s character as nothing more than a cringey edge-lord.
Rick Bowden is a federal agent whose ultimate role is protecting the State, and therefore, capitalism. Silk Road tries to balance Bowden’s criminal behavior to that of Ulbricht, with varying success.
Is the film wrong for trying to portray an equally balanced message? Is it wrong to examine the actions of these characters and disregard the systems they personify?
Let’s unpack how capitalist realism infiltrates the discussion.
First, the audience gets a peek into the libertarian mindset. Ulbricht believed his new website was good at the most basic level. He saw himself as a progressivist against the State. He disdained the current system. Unfortunately, those beliefs led him to selfish actions instead of altruistic ones. He endorsed another individualist system instead of one guided by a desire to help society. He overlooked the humanity component in favor of individual gain.
Drug addicts and criminals began flocking to Silk Road, but Ulbricht viewed his mission as a success. Why? Was Silk Road successful because he earned millions of dollars each day? Was he successful because his parents said as much? The success he felt cannot be due to benefitting society — unless increased drug overdoses are a mark of success — so it must be based on his position that Silk Road encouraged a more free market.
The film indicates that the desire to weaken the State is selfish. Ulbricht said social welfare programs are government overreach. His libertarian goal does little to better society; he only hires hitmen and works to improve his own circumstances. He is a selfish lawbreaker and deserves life in prison. If the general population were to dissent against capitalism, there would be no benefit and no solution to their problems.
In this way, Agent Bowden appears in a more positive light. He is not a corrupt agent who embodies the selfish nature of capitalism. Here is a victim of circumstance who provides security for his family. He protected society from the inherent lawlessness of a weakened State.
Thinking of the two ideologies as good versus bad obscures one aspect they share: individualism.
At the core of libertarianism is a belief that individuals should have precedence over the State and social groups. Libertarianism inherently wants to keep society separated. In effect, a society without collective bargaining power.
Similarly, capitalism is built on a framework of inequality and whitewashed by the ideal of individual personal freedoms. Once again, a system that keeps separates communities and removes their collective power.
These are different ideologies, but their outcome is the same. They place profit above all else. They use our innate desire for independence as a bargaining chip to prevent revolution. The inequality they breed turns people against each other instead of against the system that made them unequal in the first place.
Yes, Ulbricht and his approach to dismantling capitalism were self-serving. That doesn’t mean it is wrong to strive for alternatives to the system dividing us.
FALSE EQUIVALENCY
The film parallels the young libertarian and the older DEA agent. Multiple scenes show these men sacrificing their relationships in pursuit of success. They both become obsessed with what they see as the correct path to help society.
Our two main characters are motivated by injustice against them. Their interpretation of the cause behind the unfairness is what diverges their action.
It’s easy to believe that all political ideologies are just different sides of the same coin. It’s easy to lose hope. Pitting Bowden and Ulbricht against each other gives the impression that they are on opposite teams. However, both these characters are victims of the system they inhabit, simply in different ways.
Bowden is marginalized through ageism in his workplace. He wants to take down the younger generation that is disempowering him.
Ulbricht feels unsuccessful within his role in the capitalist state. He detaches from society and drifts away from solidarity and toward a glorification of individual responsibility.
This is the true parallelism that is avoided throughout the film: two completely opposite characters — both struggling to persevere under a system that oppresses and imprisons them both.
AUTHOR BIO
Stacey Guest is a freelance writer for hire and virtual assistant to authors/writers. She especially enjoys helping leftie projects and showcasing feminist perspectives. To learn more about how she can help you write content that informs and engages your audience, you may contact her on LinkedIn.
