It never hurts to think about incentives -- your own, and somebody else's. Studying incentives is key to "the dismal science" of economics. Studying incentives does not imply cynicism, or stumbling into conspiratorial guesswork. It offers a walk in someone else's moccasins. Trying to see the world as others see it is the basis of a moral sense.

Media's incentive is to attract eyeballs in print, TV, movies or the internet. Radio must attract eardrums. Media dress up in pieties about the public interest, and the moral obligation to keep people informed, but unless people read, watch, or listen, information vanishes into the void. Media have become so pervasive, audiences need to be skeptical of their temptation to pontificate, and to pass off propaganda as analysis. Media bigwigs could occasionally admit, "We're messengers, not philosopher/kings."

In the 1920s and 30s, Huey Long was one of the most fiery populists in American history. As Louisiana governor, later senator, he amassed personal power by sidestepping legal norms under the slogans, "Share Our Wealth," and "Every Man a King," and by heaping invective on rivals. The Longs became a political dynasty of brothers, sons and nephews, somewhat like a Louisiana version of the Kennedys of Massachusetts. Several Longs vacationed in the racy resorts of Hot Springs, Arkansas, then popular with Northern gangsters, and where Bill Clinton later grew up.

Huey admired President Franklin D. Roosevelt, yet ridiculed him, even though they were both Democrats with overlapping agendas. Huey could laugh at himself from time to time, and joke about Roosevelt: "We're just a couple of politicians, he and I."

Huey was assassinated in 1935, but the family never lacked courage, or lost their talent for self-deprecating humor. Huey Long's long-lived son, Russell, served from 1953 until 1981 on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in charge of tax laws. Russell was instrumental in passing President John F. Kennedy's tax reductions in the early 1960s. Like JFK, Russell Long could joke about himself -- a huge, often underrated political asset. Long quipped about tax reform, "Don't tax you, don't tax me; tax that fellow behind the tree." Long's insight and candor were refreshing then, remain pertinent to contemporary tax controversies, and will likely remain pertinent for all time.

The current movie, "Darkest Hour," conveys the deadliest do-or-die challenge faced by modern Britain, or by Western civilization so far. It shows Winston Churchill, a politician mistrusted by opposition parties, despised by his Conservative Party, lacking the common touch, yet able to rally his people in 1940 after the Nazis overran the Low Countries, neared victory in France, and trapped 330,000 retreating Allied troops on the beach at Dunkirk. Nearly everyone but Churchill believed the situation hopeless. Although movies "based on a true story" customarily fictionalize dialogue, "Darkest Hour" uses several of Churchill's speeches verbatim. Churchill's colleague, Lord Halifax, often disparaged as a weak-kneed defeatist, is depicted as a realist who sincerely believes Britain is licked. Yet after Churchill's climactic speech, "We shall never surrender," Halifax concedes that Winston has "sent the English language into battle."

"Darkest Hour" faithfully portrays the character of Churchill's wife, Clementine, who was aware for the duration of their marriage the sacrifices entailed with a husband devoted to public life. Yet Clementine was never a self-effacing doormat, nor humorless, frosty, nor a long-suffering martyr to her husband's career. Some of the movie's best moments show her giving sound counsel and moral support as only true love can do.

There was one cinematic fiction the movie should not have indulged. Churchill goes into a subway to converse with London civilians. There's no evidence Churchill ever rode the subway, and under wartime circumstances his retinue would not have permitted that risk. Media should not make up stuff like this. The truth is stronger. The movie could have used the 1940s-era technique of "lap dissolve," showing a realistic scene rippling into a dream sequence.

There are fewer degrees of separation between Churchill and today than many people know. John Kennedy's father, Joseph, as ambassador to the U.K., thought like Halifax that Britain was licked. Kennedy's sons learned from that mistake, and rose to the challenge. JFK's most Churchillian achievement was defying Soviet threats during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

At my brother's urging, I attended the 1999 launch of the warship USS Winston S. Churchill in Bath, Maine. Churchill's daughter, Mary, who was a teenager in 1940, gave the christening speech. "As long as the Anglo-Atlantic alliance remains invincible," Mary said, "There is a chance for freedom in the world."

Informed skepticism shows that true leaders sometimes sacrifice popularity for hard truths, in order to pursue enduring values.

— Cape Cod Times columnist Thomas Gelsthorpe lives in Cataumet and welcomes comments at thomasgelsthorpe@gmail.com.