tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post3154749403489671459..comments2024-03-12T16:53:52.795-04:00Comments on Crypto-Catholic Libertine: Mad Men: Mary Magdalen made him do itJules Aiméhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-6371775494198392412013-04-17T12:40:22.383-04:002013-04-17T12:40:22.383-04:00That's right, the draft dodgers will open up a...That's right, the draft dodgers will open up a can of worms for him, no doubt about it. But remember what the climate of that time was. This was before M*A*S*H and the Carter amnesty, the country was polarized worse than what we see today. So while today's audience might view Vietnam and Korea as bad wars, that was not the case in 1968 and people on both sides had very strong opinions. Those who fled to Canada did so on moral grounds (so they said) but Don/Dick can't even make that claim. If what he had done were to be exposed, the authorities might come down very hard on him in order to make an example of him and discourage others from going to Canada. BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-48035834659404107782013-04-17T06:10:31.085-04:002013-04-17T06:10:31.085-04:00Good points. I wonder, though, if that is dramatic...Good points. I wonder, though, if that is dramatically credible. Given that we now live in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and President Carter's subsequent pardon of draft dodgers (which would NOT apply to Don), do most people feel that Don's crime really is a crime? Even the people who hate Don most, and there are lots of them, tend not to care about his desertion.You are quite right that it would be a legally airtight case against him but Weiner also has to make the story seem morally credible to the audience watching.<br /><br />And remember that the audience watching have been taught all their lives that the Vietnam and Korean wars were not good wars. Raised on M*A*S*H, they are more likely to view Don's desertion as a good thing. <br /><br />Where it all gets interesting will be with regard to the draft dodgers. That's just around the corner and Don will, as everyone alive at that time had to, have to take a moral stand on the issue. That will create all sorts of moral tensions for him.Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-62058323331499026182013-04-17T01:36:46.381-04:002013-04-17T01:36:46.381-04:00I enjoy your Mad Men comments and agree with most ...I enjoy your Mad Men comments and agree with most of them. What we--not just you but others who post on other sites--seem to have forgotten is that Don/Dick did commit a serious crime, he was a deserter during the Korean War. I don't know if there's a statute of limitations on that, I doubt it, but there are serious consequences for desertion, and that only adds to his sense of loneliness and alienation. I've read your comments about authenticity and where the writers are going, but its not just his horrid upbringing--whore mother, living in a whorehouse--that make him to the things he does. It is also that he committed a crime by assuming Draper's identity and pretending it was Whitman who died. That's not just a philosophical issue, its a legal one as well. I'm wondering if the last scene in the last episode of the series will show Don/Dick turning himself in to military authorities. BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.com