The fun thing about the story of Robin Hood is that it’s essentially a perfect description of what people think is wrong with the world and what we should do about it no matter what side of the political spectrum you are.

What I mean is that each side will see something completely different in the story, that is completely the opposite of what the other side sees, but that perfectly represents his own point of view.

Liberals will see a story about a man who “steals from the rich to give to the poor”. In other words, a man in the front line of a class struggle, fighting the inequities brought along by the evil rich landlords, who is not afraid to use violence if necessary to achieve equality.

Conservatives will see an evil, overbearing, corrupt government who decided that the solution for all its problems is to overtax the shit out of its people (to support is excesses, not to actually help anyone), and the man who, after having his properties stolen by said government, decides to fight it and bring freedom back to the land.

Liberals will utterly fail to notice that all the villains in the story are part of the government (and that they are rich because of that, not the other way around), or that the whole thing started when they decided that raising taxes on everyone was better than doing any actual working.

Conservatives will fail to notice that if you allow a small group of people to attain power unchecked, they’ll invariably end up like the government in the story, abusing the shit out of everyone else so they don’t have to move a finger to live in utter luxury.