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'Capitalism' as Comedy and Tragedy Now Playing in NY and L.A.
Friends,
The time has arrived for, as Time magazine called it, my "magnum opus." I only had a year of Latin when I was in high school, so I'm not quite sure what that means, but I think it's good.
I've spent nearly two years on this new movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story," and have poured my heart and soul into this project. Many early critics and viewers have called it my "best film yet." That's a hard call for me to make as I'm proud of all of my films -- but I will tell you this: What you are about to see in "Capitalism" is going to stun you. It's going to make some of you angry and I believe it's going to give most of you a new sense of hope that we are going to turn the sick and twisted mess made by the last president around. Oh, and you're going to have a good laugh at the expense of all the banking and corporate criminals who've made out like bandits in the past year.
I'm gonna show you the stuff the nightly news will rarely show you. Ever meet a pilot for American Airlines on food stamps because his pay's been cut so low? Ever meet a judge who gets kickbacks for sending innocent kids to a private prison? Ever meet someone from the Wall Street Journal who bluntly states on camera that he doesn't much care for democracy and that capitalism should be our only ruling concern?
You'll meet all these guys in "Capitalism." You'll also meet a whistleblower who, with documents in hand, tells us about the million-dollar-plus sweetheart loans he approved for the head of Senate Banking Committee -- the very committee that was supposed to be regulating his lending institution! You'll hear from a bank regulator why Timothy Geithner has no business being our Treasury Secretary. And you'll learn, from the woman who heads up the congressional commission charged with keeping an eye on the bailout money, how Alan Greenspan & Co. schemed and connived the public into putting up their inflated valued homes as collateral -- thus causing the biggest foreclosure epidemic in our history.
There is now a foreclosure filed in the U.S. once every seven-and-half SECONDS.
None of this is an accident, and I name the names others seem to be afraid to name, the men who have ransacked the pensions of working people and plundered the future of our kids and grandkids. Somehow they thought they were going to get away with this, that we'd believe their Big Lie that this crash was caused by a bunch of low-income people who took out loans they couldn't afford. Much of the mainstream media bought this storyline. No wonder Wall Street thought they could pull this off.
Jeez, I guess they forgot about me and my crew. You'd think we would've made a better impression on these wealthy thieves by now. Guess not.
So here we come! It's all there, up on the silver screen, two hours of a tragicomedy crime story starring a bunch of vampires who just weren't satisfied with simply destroying Flint, Michigan -- they had to try and see if they could take down the whole damn country. So come see this cops and robbers movie! The robbers this time wear suits and ties, and the cops -- well, if you're willing to accept a guy in a ballcap with a high school education as a stand-in until the real deal shows up to haul 'em away, then I humbly request your presence at your local cinema this weekend in New York and Los Angeles (and next Friday, October 2nd, all across America).
In the meantime, you can catch us on some of the TV shows that have been brave enough to let me on in the past week or so:
- Nightline (as we take a stroll down Wall Street to Goldman Sachs)
- Good Morning America (where they let me talk about Disney employees who don't get medical benefits)
- The View (where the Republican co-host told everyone to go see it! Whoa!)
- The Colbert Report (this guy is a genius, seriously)
- Larry King (where a spokesperson for the Senator who got the sweetheart loans responds for the first time)
- Keith Olberman (where we both wonder just how long these media corps are going to let us get away with what we do)
- Wolf Blitzer (yes, he's back for more abuse - and lovin' it)
... And the amazing Jay Leno. This man called me after seeing the movie and asked me to be his only in-studio guest on the second night of his new prime-time show. I said, "Jay, shouldn't you be thinking of your ratings in the first week of the show? Are you sure you didn't misdial Tom Hanks' number (the area code where I live is 231; 213 is LA)?" He told me he was profoundly moved by this film. So I was the guest on his second show, and he told all of America it was my "best film" and to please go see "Capitalism: A Love Story." That was Jay Leno saying that, not Noam Chomsky or Jane Fonda (both of whom I love dearly). The audience responded enthusiastically and, after 20 years of filmmaking, it was a moment where I crossed over deep into the mainstream of middle America. Jay's bosses at General Electric musta been... well, let's just say I hope they didn't place a reprimand in his permanent record. He's one helluva guy (and following the example he set with his free concerts for the unemployed in Michigan and Ohio last spring, I've gotten permission from the studio to do the same with my film in ten of the hardest-hit cities in the U.S. next week).
Oh, and he made me sing! Prepare yourself!
Thanks everyone -- and see you at the movies!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Twitter.com/MMFlint
Facebook.com/MMFlint
MySpace.com/MMFlint
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68 Comments so far
Show AllThank God someone is exposing the criminal predator class. It is amazing that Michael's detractors never have any good reason to hate him so virulently-he must be stepping on toes.
but............
socialisim without capitalism = communism = dictatorship
upbridled, unregulated capitalism without socialism equals oligarchy which eventually =dictatorship
only a proper balance between regulated capitalism and the right measure of socialism to ensure all are included works
this is Keynesian Capitalism
the only stable and workable economic system that ensures the freedoms we cherish, that still rewards hard work, and yet cares for and includes all in the benefits of society
who has to regulate the capitalists??
why the government of course
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Had I been born in the 1920s I would agree with this analysis wholeheartedly, but none of the notches on the old Left-to-Right political paradigm from communism to socialism to social democracies to capitalist democratic republics to fascism has honestly or comprehensively addressed the two primary problems now confronting every human being on this planet: Degradation of the biosphere and over-populations of human beings accelerating the degradation of the biosphere--human beings who inhabit economic systems that fail to fairly or sustainably distribute goods and services on a global scale. None of the old ideologies were created during eras that were forced to confront these challenges and they lack the theory, vocabulary, new ideas and plans for new forms of democratic and scientific institutions capable of successfully dealing with them. I've posted many of my ideas (considered over the last 22 years) about this over the last two years on this site and will again if and when I have more time. The essential idea of a balance between some components of capitalism and programatic examples of the ideas of economic fairness and social justice (common to democracy, socialism and progressivism) is still a good starting point. But these days it's only a starting point.
Personally, I've come to believe that all ownership of medium to large scale industries should be in collective government hands--effectively controlled by a combination of workers & consumers councils. Certain key industries would require medium- to long-term planners councils as well. The ownership of medium to large scale agri-businesses should also be in collective government hands with as much of the land as possible returned to smaller family farmers with subsidies for authentic organic farming. Small businesses and farms should remain in private ownership. Big Media consortiums should be broken up and ownership diversified for the same reasons that the big banks should be broken into many smaller, more locally responsive and locally and legally accountable banks.
Socialism without Capitalism is simply socialism.
It's State Socialism (aka State Capitalism, aka Fascism) --where the same minority of people run both the government and the economy-- that's what often degrades to dictatorship. It doesn't have to - Britain was a State-Socialist country for awhile, and did very well for the citizenry compared to the State Socialism in (e.g.) the USSR. It doesn't have to degrade, but it too often does and even when it doesn't, the best form of State-Socialism is still "friendly fascism".
Real socialism is nothing more than political and economic democracy: working people (i.e., the majority of the citizenry) running both government and industry.
Jefferson was very insightful about the practical benefits of democracy, perhaps the chief benefit being that any scumbag trying to get a special deal by bribing enough government officials (as is routinely done today everywhere democracy is a sham) would end up bankrupt.
real socialism is what many people wanted in all the now communist countries to become but unfortunately they all decay into dictatorships or something equally noninclusive and authoritarian///// that is it decayed into what you refer to as state socialism
Michael, You're amazing. We love ya.
I love what people like Moore, Naomi Klein, etc., are doing in the "Anglosphere" regarding waking up people to the realities of capitalism, but I can't stop thinking that the same kind of things was said in the early 70's by Eduardo Galeano in his magnificent "The Open Veins of Latin America" (Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina), and often much more forcefully and eloquently. You may want to check that book. It is a bit dated now, of course, but most of it has stood the test of time very well.
Again, kudos to M. Moore for his work.
(where we both wonder just how long these media corps are going to let us get away with what we do)
They are not worried about Mike and Keith. The media corps are experts in how to ignore, marginalize, and especially muddy any rational arguments these guys try to make. It's like trying rationally talk to an audience, while a thousand radios, and TVs are blasting white noise a full volume.
Plus the political system is so corrupted by corporate money how are the few informed supposed to really do anything meaningful to change anything. The game is rigged folks and its not rigged in our favor.
As usual, I'll be one of the first to see Moore's latest film. And I'll buy the DVD as always. We are so lucky to have him. This is what filmmaking should be about.
On a sadder and more discouraging note, its all moot as Michael continuously, as on cue, falls prey to the democrats and their politics of false promises and outright lies. For a brief moment in time, we get a good laugh and experience a feel-good moment. (We damn sure deserve one!) But, in the end, (sigh), when the popcorn is gone, after the lights come up and we return home, the same criminals are still in charge--aided and abetted by Moore's party and president of choice. The looting continues at home. The killing continues overseas.
Are we better for Michael Moore (and Klein & Maher)? Of course. We need good filmmakers, writers & jesters. But, by and large, at the end of the day, their work doesn't provide for any real change that helps the working class stiff or everyday citizen.
If change ever comes, it'll come from the street, not the screen.
In my opinion the streets are way over rated for change... what they do is allow the Police State to use all their latest weapons for riot control and now a days the leaders seem to want that.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
I don't think Michael Moore is "falling prey to the Democrats." He has made it clear that he is aware of the true nature of their promises and other rhetoric. He is pragmatically working with the system and the Democratic Party he inhabits in the present tense--not as he would wish them to be in an ideal sense that doesn't apply to present grim realities. I think many times he is hoping against hope so that he won't fall into despair. He has said as much. That is a very human thing to do. All sane human beings need some hope to cling to from time to time. I am willing to forgive him his other shortcomings in light of what he has achieved in getting millions of Americans to look at the ugly realities of our corporate State in a way no other citizen has.
He's not Santa Claus for progressives and he's not a miracle worker. I think he views himself as being in the same position as liberals, progressives and socialists in the early 1930s with FDR in office. He knows that in the American capitalist-dominated system ANY occupant of the Oval Office MUST BE PRESSURED to do the right thing at the right time. Pressuring FDR took place both from people inside the old Democratic Party and, more importantly, people outside of it who were explaining the urgent need for it to reform. That is what I believe Moore is doing. There is nothing more American in the best sense of the word.
"If change ever comes, it'll come from the street, not the screen."
That's like saying change won't come from books or pamphlets. If the left want to succeed (and not just enjoy our persecution complex)it will require making our positions acceptable to the vast majority using every medium available. Let's create a culture that attracts some fresh blood. Go Michael.
True, the game is rigged.
But we know that it has always been rigged... that is why we are called the "Left" which the masters of Language and the ruling class define as weak and evil.
In a right handed world the rulers were cunning to cop the appearance of "majority" and goodness.
One thing we have in our favor is... We don't give up so time could be on our side.
Mr. Moore gets it right on the screen, but fails when push comes to shove to get it right when it comes to supporting a presidential candidate. Supporting Obama is contrary to what it seems this movie is about.
The status quo, meaning how the corporate elite determine the policies, the wars, the form of financial aid (and making sure that it all benefits them regardless of the cost to the people and environment), has been supported by Obama all along (look at his previous voting record), and will continue to be supported (look at his political appointees).
No matter what you call the social system, it will fail if it does not protect basic human rights for all.
Our system was doomed to fail from the beginning when "We the people" only applied to land-holding white males.
"Single payer or single term."
"Public option is not an option."
Check out the discussion on the Naomi Klein article posted below, especially "metal September 26th, 2009 5:51 am".
It offers a reasonable, if not satisfying, explanation for Moore's sometimes frustrating unwillingness to openly connect some crucial dots.
As I've been writing, I find Moore's politics far more mundane and unimaginative than his filmmaking.
I certainly can't buy Moore's continued expressed hope that there's a better Obama secretly trying to advance a progressive agenda against overwhelming opposition. And it's hard to believe that HE really believes it.
But, as others have noted, Moore may intentionally conceal a more skeptical, radical view than he admits in public. FWIW, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, also took that course. That's why many deeply skeptical and pessimistic items were only published posthumously. Clemens DID express many unorthodox and unpopular views, e.g. he was an outspoken anti-imperialist, but ruefully acknowledged that in order to be socially acceptable-- and to feed one's family-- one must profess "corn pone opinions":
Clemens obtained this term, he wrote, from a slave he knew in childhood, to wit:
______________________________________
One of his texts was this:
"You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is."
I can never forget it. It was deeply impressed upon me. By my mother. Not upon my memory, but elsewhere. She had slipped in upon me while I was absorbed and not watching. The black philosopher's idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter. If he would prosper, he must train with the majority; in matters of large moment, like politics and religion, he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors, or suffer damage in his social standing and in his business prosperities. He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinions -- at least on the surface. He must get his opinions from other people; he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views.
______________________________________
For better or worse, I think that may be Moore's belief too. Also, despite all that he presents to disabuse it, he really can't shake off the obsolete working-class faith in the Democratic Party as "the party of the working man".
· Yr Obd't Servant
I acknowledge the corn-pone argument, but the degree that it holds depends on the persons degree of security. As a US Government employee and union member, I am relatively hard-to-fire compared to employees of capitalist firms, so I have much less compunction about biting the hand that feeds me.
This can be seen in activism in the US in general. When the G20 met in London tens of thousand turned out; in Pittsburgh, far less (it is especially hard to get a turn-out to a demonstration on weekdays in the US). Some of this has to do with london being a far larger city, but might the UK/Europe's more generous social programs have something to do with it?
"might the UK/Europe's more generous social programs have something to do with it?"
-------------------
Bingo.
"Much of the mainstream media bought this storyline. No wonder Wall Street thought they could pull this off."
Michael, please forgive my irritation at your statement. I know you know what goes on in the mainstream media. I believe you fear them with good reason. So, as the subject of your next movie, why don't you do an expose on the Main Stream Media?
Suppose that, rather than the MSM "buying the storyline", as you put it, something entirely different happened? Suppose that the corporate managers on Wall Street that sit on the boards of MSM corporations were the ones who "prepped" the MSM to help Wall Street game the system? Yes, I know, that would be accusing Wall Street of conspiracy to defraud the American Public. That's not very humerous and it's not your style. But you know that these goons plan ahead and you know the MSM isn't just in bed with Wall Street; It's their PR weapon!
Specifically, lay out the different MSM editorial levels (decision makers) and the connections of these people to Wall Street and the government. Also, you might want to throw in the quote from more than one former CIA director that said agency has "assets" in most news organizations. See if you can shed light on how much propaganda is placed in the MSM by the government in general and the CIA in particular. Show that it's not just about making money, but making war too.
Yeah, I know, you want to live a little longer. It's okay Mike. We know we live in a capitalist dictatorship, not a democracy.
The only critique I have about your movie is that you did not do a side by side comparison of a modern American corporation's power structure and Russia's power structure during the days of the Soviet dictatorship.
Premier = CEO
Politburo = Board of Directors (controlling shareholders)
People = minority Shareholders
The Politburo had sham elections, just like our corporations where compensation, fringe benefits and disciplinary action for executives cannot be voted on by minority shareholders.
Corporations are God damned dictatorships!
Our MSM are what Pravda and Ysvestia PR news was to the USSR. Our CIA is up to its' neck in this.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
It is astonishing that Moore has been granted as much access to the MSM as he has. He relies on the emotional content of his films to move people and he has actually moved a few media movers and shakers like Leno. He's savvy enough to know he can't bite the hand of the infotainment giants if he wants to carve out a broadcast tolerance-niche for authentic social critics of the capitalist establishment like himself. It is ridiculous to paint this man as loving the capitalists or them as loving him; the same goes for Big Media, the DLC (who, by turns, slam him or pretend to be affably cajoled by him while they fear him), and Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Big Auto. He's spent decades thumping the oligarchs on their noses, steadily building his audience and living to tell the tale.
How many others besides Ralph Nader have gotten away with that? Gore Vidal is of another era all but passed from the scene. Same for Jacques Cousteau and his little known Bill of Rights for Future Generations (one of the most enlightened and advanced documents in its full implications ever written) that was completely censored by Big Media. Noam Chomsky is persona non grata to Big Media and hardly anyone outside of an educated elite has ever even heard of him. What ever happened to Sunsara Taylor? Richard Gere is a one issue wonder/has been as far as Big Media is concerned. Robert Redford and Ted Turner do their things but you hear less and less about them. George Soros strikes me as being more preoccupied with preventing a resurgence of pro-fascist anti-semitism in the regions former Soviet Union, former Soviet satellite nations and the EU than in the rapid concentration of fascism in the U.S.
It amazes me to see so many anti-Michael Moore posts from CD critics who bash him as not going far enough. I live in the Deep South and, believe me, what Moore says is considered dangerously radical in this region and in many other Republican enclaves. They are scared to death of this guy. Their arguments against him lack eloquence, facts or an equally affable or charismatic messenger to deliver them. All Republican attempts thus far to produce films to criticize him with their form of what passes for "humor" come off as, rightfully, vacuous and mean spirited.
Moore is, admittedly, one of what should be many more and stronger critics of run amok American captialism, but the fact that he survived this long with a message this strong under recent historical conditions since Reagan is remarkable in itself and deserving of some minimal acknowledgment by far-Left fumers who have not figured out how to get their message across to even a tiny fraction of the people Moore reaches on a regular basis.
Michael, on Stephen Colbert's show last night you said that you believed that your latest documentary could serve as 'The opening salvo' towards a popular uprising. Not sure it can, but certainly worth a try. Any chance you could announce publicly that on, say, October 3, assuming the American people are ready & willing, that after the movie in (pick the city & time), you'll be there to lead the parade?
From the 'Larry King' interview the last part on the money in politics is, along with the neocon subversion of the MSM, the 2 biggest problems and either electing people not just campaigning on 'get the money out of politics' but demonstrating in anyway their willingness to adhere to such a campaign promise is vital beyond all along with taking the MSM back so the masses in country can be given, whether they like it or not, REAL information so's to make the important decisions in their lives and the lives of those around them, other wise it will remain a dumbass america driven more and more by myth and emotions and america will retain its crown of the largest slave state and the promoter of state sponsered financial terrorism.
And taking the political election process away from the MSM as the 'acting' hosts for candidate selection and 'debate' which on the current MSM is nothing but personality and appearance contests, may as well watch the miss whoever contest.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Some possible solutions:
(1) A national summit of the leaders of all American progressive groups for the purpose of uniting those groups into one umbrella Progressive Party.
(2) The establishment of a network of multiple low power progressive FM radio stations in every city funded by listener sponsors, fund raising events and grants from wealthy Americans sympathetic to building an effective national progressive movement or Progressive Party. Effective combined use of these stations en mass to reach large urban audience shares.
(3) The reaching out of the Progressive Party, once its foundations are solid, to disaffected Democratic Party support groups who've been abandoned and alienated by the Democratic Leadership Council corporatists now controlling the Democratic Party.
(4) The building of a nationwide Party organization in every sizable town with full-time canvassers, permanent offices, office equipment, access to transportation, daily mass broadcast media access via intensive market blanketing of low power FM radio.
(5) Fundraising directed at wealthy liberals and progressives tired of Democratic Party corporatists.
(6) Development of eloquent, charismatic Progressive Party speakers and candidates on a nationwide scale starting at the local level in medium to large cities. Election of as many candidates as possible.
(7) Growing influence and pressure on the Democratic and Republican Parties to push presidents to appoint more liberal and progressive Supreme Court justices.
(8) Restoration of the Fairness Doctrine.
(9) Repeal of the arbitrary and unprecedented Rehnquist Supreme Court ruling that "money equals free speech for the purposes of campaign finance."
(10) A progressive movement to allow only fully publicly financed federal elections that remove all private money from the election campaign process (like in Australia where they are paid for out of a tiny percentage of their income taxes) and remove the incentive for mass media corporations to drive up the costs of what should be the public's election system.
Limit the duration of all federal election campaigns to six months.
(11) Repeal all Supreme Court and federal court rulings that extend 14th amendment "equal protection" to corporations as "artificial legal persons" with rights equivalent to those of the flesh and blood human beings actually mentioned in the Constitution (unlike corporations). The fact is that because of their existence as legal entities, corporations have many more rights, special protections and the ability to accumulate far more wealth and power than any mortal human being.
That would be a start.
Sioux Rose
METAL: I thought I'd read down the posts before responding, and intended to say that had I the resources, I'd provide YOU with a radio show. Interesting that in this particular post your item # 2 speaks of greater outreach for progressive minds via the radio spectrum. It would seem that is where YOU belong.
Lately you have contributed well conceived strategies and analyses in this forum. Your grasp of history is far more nuanced than my own, and I want to take this moment to thank you for adding your precious time and insights to this forum.
Your debates with AMFORTAS and CHESS GAME are also much appreciated. We are fortunate to have some profound thinkers in our "virtual community" here. The best solutions arise organically from the diverse nature of sentient minds adding their particular perspectives (on the tests of our times) to what perhaps operates like a vast cognitive collage.
SIOUX ROSE: Yes! I have seen this happen again and again over the years. Sincere, intense group discussion moves almost on its own to a wisdom that is almost magically greater than its parts.
I am following Metal and Chessgame's postings as well. And of course I always read yours. I am not yet familiar with AMFORTAS, but will watch for his/hers.
Group hug :)?
Sioux Rose
GANDY: There are times I lose any sense of optimism, yet it operates like an entity with enough specific gravity to spring back up to the surface, and float! I suppose "the mechanism" behind this is in part due to the evidence of history. For all the brutality witnessed too often in tribe-on-tribe conflicts, there have also been moments, discoveries that no one previously imagined. Money itself is not evil. It is the LOVE of $ that produces the darkest forms of greed and the sicknesses of soul these give rise to. The same can be said for discoveries. All possibilities (yet) unmanifest exist within the interactive mosaic comprised of the human "family."
I study a number of Oracle systems, and while at times my predictions come true, at other times they do not. It's humbling, but also reminds that there are always aspects unforseen (or missed) that factor into that mix that manifests as consensual reality. Given the SAME data, people still form opposed opinions. It reminds me of the adage about the blind man and the elephant. Depending on his specific point of contact determines his view of the thing.
Our forum which purportedly attracts over 50,000 readers could be one such petri-dish where something amazing takes shape. The idea of the "200th monkey" comes to mind. That if enough of us "get it," then that which serves the life force may work through us to generate solutions which at this point remain unrealized.
In a previous post I related that back in l999 I had an intriguing session with a trance medium. I meet many frauds in my field, but this was as close to the real thing as I can imagine. In any case, I was told through the voice of the channel that "Many want oblivion. An end to it all."
When I saw the numbers--50 million! who purchased the Tim Lehaye "Left Behind" series which focuses on "End Times," it was clear to me that this is the religious ilk's parallel to the military's equally self-destructive strategy known as "M.A.D." In both instances substantial groups of people are working towards--even if mainly through the beliefs they entertain--global destruction.
I believe it was Sommerset Maughm who spoke of those who live "lives of quiet desperation." Many in the U.S. are not happy with their lives. That's clear enough from the grotesque forms of the many morbidly-obese persons, added to the prescription numbers of those regularly ingesting anti-depressants (in the MILLIONS!), to which we can add the millions wrestling with alcoholism, and drug addiction, and countless social perversions. The suggested sum hardly points to anything remotely life-affirming.
Since the vast majority would not be so brave (atheism or otherwise) to throw the gift of life back at Creator, it's much easier on souls to embrace the belief that it is GOD'S will to put an end to it all--Armageddon style. This juvenile perception that God, like a sports jock, really has a stake in which team "wins" in an all-out war being courted in the Holy Land is entertained by MILLIONS. And should religion fail at this task (a fate making progress given the high numbers of religious fundamentalists recruited by our military, especially into the ranks of the air force... brave guys who get to use joysticks from the convenience of their home offices to send predator drones over the villages of the latest designated-enemies), the armed forces are ready to step in. In fact, they are already moving about the world like unstoppable formations of red ants, leaving everything tainted in their wake.
These types of actions resonate with the primitive archetype of Mars, god of war, and that's why I refer to the influence of this particular prototype on American culture and policy (domestic and foreign).
Still, the unpredictable oten happens. The forces that support life and those of us who do what we can to honor it, may help shape events that allow Light to pierce the darkness and disable it substantially. For instance, were specific charges to emanate through space, perhaps discharged from a comet or bits of asteroid (?) could these impede reception on the computer grids which so much military action and poorly-named "intelligence" relies upon? Sci Fi, or that which was once perceived as such, often becomes the norm. Many aspects of the future cannot be known. Like ISIS from the Tarot, were we to turn the page in the book of life ahead of schedule, the entire plan would collapse. Sometimes in darkness the seed of hope best germinates.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Dear Sioux Rose,
I think that it is very true that, "Many want oblivion. And end to it all." And that "many embrace the belief that it is GOD'S will to put an end to it all--Armageddon style"--and, in America especially, the "Christian Right" goes on to help facilitate that end (either consciously or sub-consciously) through their subsequent actions and lifestyle.
What this says to me is that (1) there is a lack of imagination or the willingness and developed ability to imagine a better world and a workable plan to get there, and (2) our educational, religious and political classes discourage imaginative social thinking because it requires that one thinks for oneself--which they view as an existential threat to their systems of acquiring social power and lifestyle money.
It is the job of true artists, spiritual teachers (who can be any kind of teacher who encourages imagination along with critical and hopeful thinking with their teaching), and the best political leaders to stimulate the collective imagination, to provide visions of a better world that the masses can absorb and reflect upon and hopefully come up with some of their own ideas towards that end or at least help push for the creation of the types of jobs and institutions that can bring that better world about.
American artists up until roughly the turn of the millennium still had a noticeable impact along those lines. But since the stolen election of 2000 that landed Bush II in the White House they have lacked the imagination or the will to effectively counter right-wing neo-con fascism with a better, more imaginative and hopeful alternative vision of world and the future.
You can see this in our television shows, movies, the dominant corporate music industry, etc., right on down the line.
One example: Science fiction TV shows of decades past often had hopeful ideas of the future at their core or as their premise, or they engaged a sense of wonder at all the possibilities of creation. Classic Star Trek epitomized a sense of adventure and wonder and described a future where Earth had solved its racial and economic problems (with an economic system superficially most similar to Participatory Economics). The Time Tunnel encouraged a sense of wonder about both a personalized sense of history and the future. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea encouraged wonder about the possibility of living and exploring beneath the seas, etc. I suggest people rent or buy the first episode of Lost In Space and listen to the premise for the space mission that set up the theme of the show. The President's speech lays it all out and this was the ONLY TV show to ever have the guts to presage an earth by the mid 1990s that was so over-populated and environmentally degraded that families were being sent out to test the possibility of colonizing deep space. That show aired in black & white in Sept. 1965 and its writers guessed within a few years of the actual Worldwatch Institute announcement that human over-populations had exceeded the Earth's ability to feed them all with existing means. But in the imaginative world of Lost In Space SOMETHING positive and hopeful had been effectively planned to DO something about it. Which is more than can be said for our "great thinkers" of this era--even the ones writing TV shows.
Most contemporary sci-fi films and TV shows are all either dystopias of despair (the Dollhouse, Sarah Conner: The Terminator Chronicles, etc.), pointless star fighter shoot-em-ups like Battlestar Constipation-ugh, or the lastest dumbed-down navel gazing ABC space soap opera whose name escapes me it's so awful. Instead of wagon trains to the stars we now get wagon trains circled and shooting at each other while the uniformly gorgeous cast members (interesting character actors having been a lost concept for untold years) show off their own egos and clothes in lieu of any acting talent. The clunky old robot on Lost in Space had more humor and more soul than any gaggle of contemporary sci-fi TV or film characters.
This nation used to value painters, PHOTOGRAPHERS, and other artists who could present beautiful images of imagined futures or imagined worlds. There was more imaginative sci-fi record album cover art, book cover art and lunch box cover art in the '60s and '70s than there are entire movies now. Some of the earlier issues of Heavy Metal magazine packed more imagination and vision in one edition than six or seven years of Amurkan commercial sci-fi output OF ANY KIND does now.
Anyone else notice that top-40 FM anti-war songs were still well known hits as late as the late 1980s and that the entire genre has practically disappeared since then? There were barely a handful of those types of song hits in the 1990s and zero since the turn of the millennium. The Clear Channel radio network that went from 1400 stations at its inception to over 40,000 stations (after the stupidly deregulatory 1996 Telecommuncations Act) banned the airing of any John Lennon songs after 9/11 on all its stations nationwide and promoted pro-Iraq War rallies around the country.
Where are the American artists, writers and thinkers to combat this shit?
SIOUX ROSE: If one looks at the reality of the state of humanity at the present time, it can only appear absolutely hopeless. Those of us who went through the normal stages of development to become mature adults well remember the stage in which we moved from dependence to independence. But it seems to me that most people never really do grow up. They just move from dependence on parents to dependence on God or Country.
If there is any hope at all it will be due to many old souls that have grown through many lifetimes. I see a great deal of hope in my own grandchildren. They seem to be old souls and their parents have done a great job of raising them, starting with natural childbirths, nursing them, and keeping them in the parent's bed till they were ready to sleep alone. A child that has been treated well forms a good strong base from which to venture out into the world.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Dear Sioux Rose,
Most of the time I just comment on the comments and try to throw in some historical background on certain subjects.
I also learn from some of the posters and try to update and integrate new ideas into my own ideas for solutions or at least the best attempts towards solutions that I can imagine. I wish more of the posters would follow up their complaints about the current state of affairs in the nation and the world with their own better elaborated ideas for what can be done in a positive manner to improve things.
So many people on the Left seem to have just completely given up for so long and that path is ultimately more difficult and much worse than organizing to actually do something. At least when you are out organizing you are meeting new like-minded friends and getting some exercise! It's better for children to see their parents civically engaged like this than for them to watch their parents evasively dismiss hopes for improving things as they immediately return to unsustainable lifestyles of instant self-gratification. Kids enjoy making protest signs and banners and it's good for them to exercise their rights this way at an early age with their parents.
I think the cognitive collage thing works better when a lot more people are consciously contributing their ideas for improvement with a view towards sharing them and learning from others.
Thanks, it is an impressive list most of which I have hoped or thought of being essential to a recovery of our beat up democracy, still the 'getting the money out of politics and the recovery of the subverted MSM are most important', which, by the way, is now only a facade to make the msm veggies think there is still a functioning democracy in this country.
But as the list goes there has to be something, some tip of the scale that will move people to actively push for real action to stop these clowns and as with sioux rose and gandy and others we seem to be on the same page but what to bring people to action because I know from writing to my senators and representative that nothing will be forth coming from them for reestablishing a true democracy, as a matter of fact mine are a major part of the problem and there is little hope other than death by old age that will remove these traitors to our republic and on the other hand there are the G20 protests that are being pretty much harshly dealt with, like the protesters from the presidential party conventions, for no other reason than to show what a bunch of gung ho volunteering police are frothing at the mouth to jump in and knock some heads around, and the people see this and it is the fear part of control of the people that stops them from becoming 'too activated'.
So there has to be some kind of well organized plans that prevent harm or incarceration of protesters that will have to work to get the people of america's attention to the reality of what is happening and one could be those contrived 'impromtu' group gatherings that stop commerce or normal business dealings to gain attention; what else will work, I am asking?
Mike does a great job with his movies but for all his genius things just seem to be getting worse out here for the majority. The class war is over and we lost Mike go take your riches and enjoy yourself it's fucking over man.
Mike isn't made like that. He can't enjoy riches when other people are in pain.
William Faulkner: "The past is never over. It's never even really the past."
"Of course, to desire something strongly enough to fight for it does not guarantee success. But it changes the odds. The renewal of the American dream may be improbable, but it will become finally impossible only when the last dreamer gives up trying to make it come true."
--Dr Marvin Harris (1927-2001). The last lines of his book "Why Nothing Works; the Anthropology of Daily Life"
"It ain't over till it's over"
-- Yogi Berra
Michael Moore is one of our most effective truth tellers because he reaches a wide audience thru his films. The essential question:Should our society promote the well being of all of us or the riches of the greedy few at the top. "Trickle down" is a false message propagated by the powerful corporate interests who control politicians and most of the media.
Michael Moore does political 'comedy.' That is why he is effective and also why it is the end of his tether.
Beyond cautionary amusement he runs 'right,' with the Democratic party.
At a certain point Americans do not take comedy, well, seriously– if they take anything seriously– except acceding to the fascism they so dearly love.
Americans seemingly can only be educated through entertainment and are suspicious of anything remotely resembling high seriousness. Anti intellectualism in American life? Sure. That's axiomatic.
But Americans like to destroy things. Perhaps even the right things.
History will overrun the conflation of education and entertainment. Probably first as as a more exigent fascism than the merely liminal fascism we now live through.
That particular 'education' is a lunch best served cold. And it will be.
First the fire bombing of Wall St. The 'laughter' comes AFTER THE FACT. As it should.
–(Jill Bains).
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
There is also a very strong documentary aspect to his films and they are meticulously researched with respect to the things he asserts as facts. The right-wing bashes his insinuations--none of which I've seen proven wrong either--but they've never been able to disprove his facts asserted as facts to my knowledge. He has a phalanx of researchers and lawyers to test case the assertions vis-a-vis the docmentary segments in his films.
America is beyond "facts."
They don't work anymore, if they ever did. Modern America is an ipso facto declaration of the reality that 'facts' are meaningless.
Facts are whatever those with the freedom to participate in power say they are.
Tim Geithner and Obama both spew lies, knowing they are lies; bizarrely, even if they spewed truths, they would be in the service of obscuring a larger truth.
Having said that, it is good to know that Michael Moore's 'facts' are so assiduously 'fact checked.' Just like the noble "New Yorker Magazine."
Sadly, not even the right wing bothers to contest Michael Moore's facts anymore. It all drifts by, as if in a dream...
America denatures everything.
(Jill Bains)
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
The right-wing, as an artificial movement of plutocratic sponsored mouthpieces, astroturf rallies and billionaire perfected think-tanks, continuously trumpets this or that chunk of an entire parallel mythological history. It is loaded with internal conflicts like the blatherings of a bunch of "Christian" fundamentalists who won't acknowledge conflicting scriptures.
But I think Moore was right when he observed that current economic and unemployment problems are going to reach their own tipping point regardless of political machinations. That could compel Obama to behave more like FDR or it could lead to a neo-conservative period of domestic fascist bloodbaths. Fascist governments contain at the core of their ideology a self-blinding, self-destructive component that tends to lead to their implosion faster than any other form of government. A big question for those of us who still care about America's future is: If America is about to sink into a domestic bloodbath period of full-tilt fascism, what comes next after that fascist State runs its course and self-destructs? A final, belated mass realization of the need for positive systemic change? Or armed Balkanization into a long-term, perhaps permanent failed State of corporate warlords like Eric Prince with their own private armies waging a Long Feudal War with each other? The only ones left past a certain point with enough economic and political power to rule will be the plutocratic new aristocrats and their mercenaries. How will the various components of the existing military break down in terms of allegiance as the last remnants of the old Republic are swept away?
"Or armed Balkanization into a long-term, perhaps permanent failed State of corporate warlords like Eric Prince with their own private armies waging a Long Feudal War with each other?" –(metal)
–I don't think this scenario is too far fetched; it feels prescient and clearly thought out as to make complete sense.
We may even already be living through the ghostly remains of the ancien régieme, without realizing or sensing the emerging patterns that are presently gestating.
The whole question of military breakdown and reconfigured allegiances is fascinating, as is 'Balkanization.' –(Jill Bains)
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
It won't be too fascinating to live through, even for a brief time.
I am very interested in how fractious cleavages in the military would play themselves out in such a scenario. I haven't a clue.
Granted, it would be anything but "fascinating to live through" and probably would be the inception of a permanent dystopia.
Yet given my ever optimistic nature, such fractures may provide opportunities for light to flood into the cracks, as few things could.
–(Jill Bains)
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
When Amurka really hits the Dark Age murk:
It's a question of population vs. resources. In the U.S. the population centers are on the coasts and the bread belt is mostly in the "heartland." If the economy breaks down sufficiently and violently enough to Balkanize political systems at the multiple State level, past a certain point the federal government won't be able to reassemble things and its authority will break down as well. People will lose faith in its authority the same way the Romans and their outlying cultures lost faith in the authority of Rome. Taxes will cease to flow into federal coffers. Democratic institutions will break down, including the court system and, somewhat more gradually, the police--who will devolve into armed vigilante groups executing "justice" on the spot until larger, better armed groups usurp their power status. Links between the federal and state governments will fail. State governments will be on their own to deal with mass uprisings, food riots, etc., that may go on for months or years.
Electricity, hospitals, sewage systems, garbage pickup, municipal and privatized water systems and road infrastructure will begin to fail in some areas sooner than others. Amurkans will get to see up close and personal how much fun it is to live without such things the same way we inflicted a similar scenario on Iraq.
Historically, when these things happen, coherent military units who still have access to their weapons and ammunition dumps will have the greatest available force to seize and control foodstores, medical supplies and other material goodies. As the national military command chain breaks down their local base locations will be rear headquarters areas for eventual regional and scattered armed fiefdoms. If things get bad enough and food and other production wanes over a long period, then regional ex-officio warlords would arise, with armies that travel and plunder available food and other resources where they find them--and wage war on each other for dominance in a given area rich in resources. Civilians will just be pawns caught in the crossfire and more mouths to feed; most of whom they will neither need nor want in their way. [Think of Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War--only with plenty more Shermans with no officers or civilian leaders above them with armies who have better weapons.]
This would all take place in an atmosphere of civilian chaos, food riots, starvation, cannibalism in some areas, disease epidemics, contaminated food and water, a resurgence of HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis, etc., bloody attempted rebellions, food and other resource hijackings. Women will be reduced to nursing the wounded, nursing children, providing mates for warrior elites and disease-ridden sex slaves to be fought over by the rabble. Targeted minorities caught in the wrong place will be executed. The old, infirm, too sick, wounded or weak will be mostly left to die. Vast areas in the heartland would be up for grabs by survivors of both the East and West Coast urban bloodbaths. New territories would be carved out based on weapons and ammunition supplies and limited food production capacities.
Since Americans have been indoctrinated for decades in capitalist fundamentalist "rugged individualism" that preaches against social cooperation of any kind, it will be every man, woman and child for him- or herself. Cultural loyalties will be at the town, close kin and neighborhood gang level. The post-Balkanization cities will be open gang warfare occasionally interrupted with more organized military/warlord sorties for one purpose or another--possibly to retrieve valuable technology, medical stores, items of intrinsic high value, or other artifacts from mostly destroyed cities. Plenty of bad music until the batteries permanently run out. Violent new "games" like Roman gladiatorial games will be the new cult "sports." Amurkan "Christian" fundamentalism will be the dominant religious system of cults both in predominantly white and black enclaves. The drug cartels will be the best organized lines of shipment in and out of the country and many will sign on to guard and deliver them.
"The time has arrived for, as Time magazine called it, my 'magnum opus.' I only had a year of Latin when I was in high school, so I'm not quite sure what that means, but I think it's good."
"Magnum" has to be something good. It's a big huge bottle of wine. So, "magnum opus" must be a penguin-shaped bottle of wine.
You had a whole year of Latin?
You're quite wrong-- Magnum is a rugged, square-jawed, elaborately mustachioed, teevee Private Investigator.
Come to think of it, though, under those loose, oversized Hawaiian shirts, he MIGHT have the body of a penguin.
· Yr Obd't Servant
One minor correction:
"Somehow they thought they were going to get away with this..."
Sorry, MM, but last time I checked - like, 5 seconds ago - 'they' have gotten away with, what, $20 trillion? 50?
No one in jail, no loot returned. The very definition of 'getting away with it.' Still getting away with it, actually, if one is to believe the lefty-loonies like Stiglitz...
The vast majority of the people who need to see CALS won't; those who will already know most of the truth already...
Exactly.
And 'they' will continue to get away with it, even with 100 Michael Moore's doing political comedy. $20 trillion or $200 trillion, the sluices are open. Obama listens to Geithner, Geithner to Summers and Summers to the éminence grise, Robert Rubin.
Is Michael Moore doing something wrong? No, the choir is receptive. This is America. If Moore's 'entertainments" even had a remote chance to motivate change, beyond their severely delimited audience, they would be suppressed. Of course, this suppression would happen so imperceptibly as to escape notice.
As long as Moore's films elicit laughter through comedy, they remain innocuous. So much so he can't even get a ruse out of the right wing anymore!
Is that better than nothing? Of course, but so what? It's still fun, and so shall it remain.
–(Jill Bains)
Of course MM is doing something wrong, he is diverting attention from the problem by providing a false analysis, and then pretending that he has solved the problem.
Like NK, MM, NC, et. al., the role of these people is to provide cover for the oligarchy that rules the country. For MM the culprit is 'capitalism', but that is just misdirection from the oligarchy.
The problem is that we don't understand the oligarchy. The first thing we (I) need to understand in global finance. This is the engine that feeds the beast. The financiers have unlimited money to achieve their goals, skimmed off the top of the world's production, and we don't have a clue as to even the most rudimentary aspects of how they're doing it.
We don't have a clue? Surely you're joking. The Readers Digest version is: they claim to own everything and enforce their claim with guns. This ensures that anyone else who wants to live must work for them, accepting whatever they choose to pay for the work, and paying whatever they choose to charge for the necessities of life. The amount they charge is always more than what they pay, and they pocket the difference.
It's modern industrial feudalism, exactly parallel to the land feudalism of the past.
Some guys says "God told me I'm the king and He gave me all the land, water, everything. So anyone who goes against me is a heretic and will be killed for it". And he kills anyone who doesn't immediately fall into line. After that, anyone who wants to live has to pay him rent directly or indirectly. Which he enforces the same way the Mob does, by paying thugs and legbreakers to keep people in line and collect the vig...er, taxes. "There's always someone willing to be a guard", the perqs including a snazzy uniform, no heavy lifting, and the right to break other people's legs if they commit a crime like Looking At Me Funny or Not Being Respectful Enough.
No, what I mean by 'we don't have a clue', is that we do not understand anything at all about international finance. E.g. currency speculation, credit default swaps, hedges, derivatives, and fifteen other things I don't even know the name of. We need to know what they are, who trades them, why, in what volume, who is profiting, and what are the consequences. I believe that billions are trading hands, or computer accounts, every day, that do not directly relate to the productive economy, but that enable the financiers to appropriate a sizable portion of the world's wealth for themselves, enough to enable them to buy the governments in any 'democratic' country, like the US.
I believe there is an unseen world of finance and financiers. We may get a glimpse now and then, and the bailout should have been a wake up call.
Wake up.
i guess you didn't see the movie...
those who created derivatives and credit default swaps can't explain them either. but then again, they are designed to obfuscate their true function, which is for the creators to sell garbage and get rich. garbage in, garbage out. it's actually very simple. AND, the deregulators didn't do shit when the ratings agencies were polishing turds and calling them gold.
this idea that we can't understand this system is bullshit. it's simple. as Chomsky always says, and Moore explains in the movie, if you understand how the Mafia works, you understand capitalism.
the other guy who claims socialism is dictatorship without capitalism apparently doesn't understand socialism or capitalism. True Socialism has never existed, and by socialism, i mean community and worker control over the production and community decisions, not the state....libertarian socialism as one example...but we'll have to agree on terms before we get into this debate.