I see in my local paper that Michael Moore is hitting the bricks again for his new movie, "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore is so far to the Left that he has a measurable red shift, and the media being who they are, you probably won't be seeing hardly anyone else on TV besides Michael for about a month. Already film festivals have hailed the movie and given it awards.
Michael describes his movie as follows:
"'Bowling for Columbine' is not a film simply about guns or school shootings. That is only the starting point for my 2-hour journey into the dark soul of a country that is both victim and master of an enormous amount of violence, both at home and around the world. With this movie I have broadened my canvas to paint a portrait of our nation at the beginning of the 21st century, a nation that seems hell-bent on killing first and asking questions later. It is a movie about the state sponsored acts of violence and terrorism against our own poor, and how we have created a culture of fear that is based on the racial dilemma we continue to ignore. And it's a devastating comedy.
"The hate mail, the threats, the promises of retribution have already started to roll in to the distributor of this movie, United Artists. They are not backing down. But how long will this last? I need all of you in the New York tri-state and southern California areas to go see "Bowling for Columbine" THIS weekend -- the rest of you can see it in a couple of weeks when it comes to your town. A strong opening not only means that the rest of America will see this film, it means that a good number of people who see it are going to leave the film angry enough to get active and get involved. If it does poorly, I will have a difficult time finding the funding for the movie I want to make next -- a film about 9/11 and how Bush is using that tragic day as a cover for his right-wing agenda.
"Don't let that happen. Don't let the NRA have one more success by stopping the wider distribution of this movie. And, together, let us not remain silent in our opposition to Bush's phony war against Iraq."
*Sigh.*
I haven't seen the movie, and probably won't, given my blood pressure. But it's going to be the usual stuff about guns, Amerika, evil corporations, and the Right Wing Conspiracy.
Michael's biggest question in the film is wondering why America has such a lot of violence when other nations, like Canada, don't have as much. He realizes that it just isn't guns--Canadians also have a lot of guns. Then what is it? I don't know what final conclusion he arrives at:
"We could get rid of all our guns and enact a bunch of strong gun-control laws, and we would still have that shared American psyche,'' Moore, 48, said after a sold-out screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. ``We would still have that common fear that the `other' is going to harm us. As long as we feel this way, we'll continue to resolve our disputes in a violent way, think of violence first instead of peaceful negotiation or compromise.''
We somehow get the idea that the "other" is going to harm us? Wow. Wonder where an idea like that could come from...
Oh wait, that's right. That was our fault.
Michael's greatest triumph is apparently his getting Charlton Heston, head of the NRA, to opine that one of the reasons that America might have a lot of violence compared to some other nations is "ethnic mixing." HA! You can almost see Moore doing his sack dance as he has revealed a great conservative as AN EVIL RACIST and the NRA as the cover for EVIL RACISM! Look to see this statement endlessly quoted by "shocked" reviewers.
Well, Michael can't admit it, even to himself, but basically, assuming the quote is accurate, Heston is right.
Ethnic and cultural mixing is the cause of a lot of violence in America. As just one example, factor out gang activity from any gun violence statistic and some rather interesting results appear. This particularly shows up in "children killed by guns" when "children" includes anyone up to 18.
You want to know something? When it comes down to it, "ethnic mixing," including mixing of races, cultures, religions, and other factors, is the cause of most major violence across the planet. List all the major incidents of violence on the planet, now and throughout history. Now try and find one that does NOT involve a clash between two races, cultures, religions, or other differences. Even the American Civil War might be considered a cultural conflict.
Think of all the nations that have been touted in the past for their low violence statistics. How many of them are or were almost completely racially or culturally homogenous? Immigration is pouring into Europe now. What's happening to the violence statistics?
America has been the result of hundreds of cultures and dozens of races and religions being thrown together, ideally under the umbrella of an overall American culture of individual rights, but this has not been the case in recent years. Looking at the big picture, this has been good for America, gleaning the creative and ambitious talent from around the planet, and improving the American culture with fresh infusions of ideas. That this mixing is noisy and full of conflict, on all sides, is hardly surprising. If Canada had our immigration rate their violence statistics wouldn't look so good either, but most people just pass through Canada on the way here.
This isn't "racism," it's the xenophobic nature of the human animal, and America deserves credit for overcoming it to an extent that few other countries have. Most nations on earth have cultures that are far more xenophobic than America, and much more blatantly racist. Try being a black person in an Asian country sometime. Hell, try being a white person in an Asian country sometime. Try being a Jew in any Arab country.
And America does not have the kind of violence that some of these countries have. Mobs do not descend on small towns and burn and pillage. Private armies do not wander the countryside. Our leaders do not execute thousands of people on a whim. Hell, if you think about it standing on the streets of any large American city, watching people from all backgrounds crowded on sidewalks and on the streets, packed dozens of stories high in apartments, and the miracle is that there is as little violence as there is. Rats crowded this way would eat each other.
Again, I haven't seen the movie. I don't know what conclusions Michael Moore finally draws on his question. But I bet it isn't this one.
Michael Moore on violence
The whole thread (21 posts)
- Michael Moore on violence