Hola all. Massawyrm here.
As the Chinese curse goes, “May you live in interesting times.” Folks, you’re living in them: a two front war without any set concrete winning conditions, a crumbling economy that very well may be on the precipice of total disaster, a charming president lacking the experience or momentum to effect real change. And making matters worse – as if they could get worse - we find ourselves in the midst of a propaganda war that just last week erupted into the open as a full blown cable news beat down. Sparked by an audacious advertisement by Fox News making false claims that other news networks hadn’t covered the 9/12 event Fox promoted, CNN and MSNBC have publically fired back, beginning to take the fight to Fox. No longer restricted to withering critique on the cable news comedy shows, we now find the 24 hour news channels embroiled in a bloody knife fight, hacking away at each other’s credibility with every passing “newscast.”
Trouble is they’re all corporate media, serving corporate interests while claiming to be the voice of the people. Beck. Maddow. O’Reilly. Olbermann. Hannity. Scarborough. They’re all the same - empty suits with agendas that are no longer kept close to their chest, but are brought out to play in fiery speeches that get more viewers than, well, you know, calmly, objectively reporting the news would get them. Believe me I know a little something about riling folks up. A few years back I wrote an incendiary 3100 word rant about HAPPY FEET. Let’s just say…it got around. The truth is, my editor Merrick and I thought it was funny. There was a lot of truth in there, but the tone was meant to rattle some cages and get some - as the /b/ kids call it - lulz. It backfired. Kind of.
For two months straight I received e-mail every single day without fail about that review. Half of it was derisive hate mail that accused me of being, as one reader put it, “a goose-stepping, Fox watching, brown shirt.” The other half, in equal measure, accused me of being something far more sinister: a champion of the people. “A brave voice standing alone against Liberal Hollywood.” Another direct quote. I learned a lot from that piece. For a few brief moments I understood what it was like to be in the shoes of a Hannity or an Olbermann. That piece got more traffic than anything else I’ve ever written, before or since. I also learned that I never, ever wanted to be that guy again. At the time we thought it would be the hundred umpteenth review calling the film out for its agenda. Turns out it wasn’t. And knowing what I know now, if I could go back, I would have written a very even handed explanation of my beliefs about the dangers of propaganda marketed to children – no matter whether I believe in the message or not.
So when I see fire and brimstone newscasters lobbing accusations back and forth, I understand the attraction. But I also detest it. I look around and see our nation’s leaders being shouted at by the people (a good thing) who don’t understand anything that they’re actually talking about (a bad thing) and are merely just repeating what they’ve heard on TV (a REALLY bad thing.) I see knuckle heads pulling over to pick fights with protesters, even when they don’t know what the protesters are actually protesting (true story – guy got his finger bitten off. He thought a health care rally was an anti-war protest and objected to being called an idiot when he accosted them.) And I see Rupert Murdoch lobbying congress to abolish anti-trust laws so he and allied news organizations can get together and price fix online news so he can begin cornering the internet market the same way he dominated the print industry.
And I think: what the world needs now is a hero. What the world needs now is Michael Moore.
No, not that Michael Moore. Not the Michael Moore that campaigns for democrats and long ago traded away his credibility for a seat at the table. That was the Michael Moore picked in 2004 by USATODAY to cover the Republican National Convention in an experiment to send someone from “the other side” into the belly of the beast. Who was the person USATODAY picked to go to the Democratic National Convention? Ann Coulter. You see? The Michael Moore we all know today is someone USATODAY equates with Ann Coulter. That Michael Moore won’t do.
No, we need 1989 Michael Moore, the Michael Moore who made ROGER & ME, a film so powerful that high school economics teachers used it as a teaching tool throughout the 90s’ (which is how I first was exposed to Moore’s films.) We need 1996 Michael Moore, the man who wrote DOWNSIZE THIS and made a film in which he lambasted ALL the political candidates in what he called a contest of “the evil of two lessers.” We need the Michael Moore who isn’t the tool of a large political machine, but rather the one who campaigned for Ralph Nader because he wanted to get out a message about The People. That’s who we need right now. An independently minded Michael Moore.
And that is almost the guy who showed up to direct CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY.
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY isn’t the partisan hatchet job it at first might appear to be. Sure, Bush 43 gets a few passing mentions and Moore actually goes after Reagan with a few cheap shots before detailing his record of deregulation and dismantling of the manufacturing base. Of course, to be fair, Moore owes his career to the Reagan era dismantling of the manufacturing base – the very basis of ROGER & ME. But a good 98% of this film isn’t about partisanship or differing ideals. It is about US vs. THEM! But rather than Red vs. Blue, it is about the worker versus the fat cat. It is about the handful of people who deregulated the financial industry, looted the people and then scored $700 Billion dollars in tax money to clean up their mess, restructuring Wall Street as they saw fit.
And those mother fuckers are on both sides of the Aisle.
Moore never forgets that. He spends as much time indicting Clinton Administration officials as he does skewering Greenspan, Bush era officials and Timothy Geithner. There are moments where I genuinely got excited, because the old Michael Moore was coming back out to play. When he nails Senator Chris Dodd (D) in this and then body checks Pelosi, man oh man, it feels just like his old stuff again. It is a breath of fresh air – a voice of reason in a sea of propaganda. But it doesn’t last; his punch doesn’t follow all the way through. And the end result is a film that will be lambasted by many of the people who need most to see it because he doesn’t do the one thing he needs to. But I’ll get to that.
The film is Moore’s grand thesis – and his best, most powerful and most important work since ROGER & ME. This isn’t just an issue movie. It’s not about wild stunts or Moore being in front of the camera. It is about a profound sickness killing this country and its people. And while he never says the word in context with what he is talking about, he lays out a beautifully eloquent argument for American Socialism.
Now, it is important to understand that I wholeheartedly disagree with Moore’s final conclusions. I do not believe that the framework of a “second bill of rights” - as FDR referred to it – is the solution to the problem. BUT, Moore’s argument is compelling and very, very important. He makes a solid, virtually unassailable case against deregulation and fiscal anarchy, showcasing how it has profoundly crushed the backbone of the country and left many of our citizenry looted, helpless and worst of all, holding the bag. And what frustrates me most about all this is that it is an argument those of us on the republican side of the aisle really need to hear right now.
You see, while it is easy to point at the crazed evangelical ultra-conservatives as the source of the Republican party’s problems, the truth is they’re just the easy target; the loud distraction while the crew cuts in three piece suits repeat over and over that we are a party about freedom (that’s good) and freedom means keeping the government out of our daily life (that’s really good) and keeping the government out of our daily life means letting the financial industry do what they want without oversight (that’s BAD.) In truth, the fundamental core of what a large majority of Republicans believe in is very much rooted in what Moore is talking about. After all, I can name three guys off the top of my head that hated banking, speculation and usury. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Jesus. Not exactly the thinkers most often quoted at liberal cocktail parties. Here Moore refers to them all.
If that segment of the population would see this film and hear Moore’s arguments - while they won’t throw up their arms and embrace socialism – the argument could become just how to go about fixing it again, rather than screaming SOCIALIST! FASCIST! at one another. But Moore commits one, serious, fatal error.
He rails on Reagan, he beats on Bush, he gut punches Clinton, he knocks around Congress…and then he boldly walks up to Obama, says a few harsh words about the financial industry’s attempts to corrupt him – and then walks away. In fact while the film goes into depth about Bush 43’s bailout/stimulus package, it doesn’t mention word one about Obama’s. And that failure gives the powers that be all the ammunition they need to truthfully - and I use that word in the loosest of possible terms – poison the audience who most needs to see it against it.
My parents won’t watch this. They hate Michael Moore. I don’t think they’ve actually watched one of his recent movies – but if Glen Beck tells them Mike kid gloves Obama and takes cheap shots at Reagan (which really, he does – using footage of Reagan from the immortal THE KILLERS, showing the scene in which Reagan slaps Angie Dickinson over Moore discussing Reagan’s treatment of feminists) they’re going to write this off and never see it, regardless of my insistence. I could buy it for them, fly up and put it in the DVD player…and they still wouldn’t watch it.
And the sad part is that there are very few flaws hrer. The film is funny, heartbreaking and ultimately enraging. It makes you want to get up out of your seat and DO SOMETHING. But there is this feeling in liberal-America that the Obama presidency is as delicate as a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, and that by simply breathing on it wrong you could kill it. I saw the same thing earlier this year in Robin Williams’ recent standup comedy tour: scathing material on every president and candidate going back into the 90’s – including a brilliant set on Cheney, with only hoots and celebratory high fives about Obama. It’s enough – especially in this day and age - to sour the whole message.
And here the message is so profound it hurts. Moore shows us EXACTLY how we’re all being fucked, and then asks us all to stand up and do something about it. We have not had this much populist rage in a LONG time. Look at the 9/12 protest signs; really look at them. These aren’t people pissed at liberals. These are people pissed at those in power. They’ve just been focused like a laser against liberals. Imagine that rage turned against the guys who actually did all this rather than against the guy who hasn’t done much at all – for better or for worse.
If the Michael Moore I grew up watching had shown up to make this movie – ALL OF THIS MOVIE – this could have been one of the most powerful pieces of media of our time. Instead, it will be remembered as another great sermon delivered to the choir who will nod along, occasionally shout Hallelujah! and ultimately go back to watching cable news figureheads shout at one another.
Seriously. See this movie. Take friends. Take your parents. It’s that important.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
Proud Member of Mike’s Militia Since March ’99.
