Someone suggested that I go see Michael Moore’s latest movie, “Capitalism”, and tell them what I thought of it. First of all, I have always enjoyed his work. I first became aware of him when I lived in Michigan and he published an alternative newspaper in Flint called, as I recall, the “Flint Voice”. He had one of my favorite song writers and musicians in, Harry Chapin, for a benefit concert for the paper. So I have followed his work. I think I, vicariously, have quite enjoyed his “Poke ‘em in the eye” approach.
“Capitalism”, the movie. What did I think? Not much. Perhaps I just didn’t get it, but it left me flat. There were some entertaining moments, very funny ones, but those were the best parts of the movie. Not exactly what one hope for when one is trying to make a point. If, in my talks, I would get feedback that suggested the very best parts of it were the jokes I told, I wouldn’t take that as much of a compliment, if, in fact, I was trying to leave the audience with a clear call to action as Michael does in this movie (though I am not sure what he was suggesting that ‘we’ do about it all).
The implication I was left with was “we can’t do anything until capitalism goes away. We are left to be victims of a system that will consume us all. We are powerless (unless we want to start or be part of a revolution that overthrows “Capitalism”), and I would be hard pressed to know where to tell someone they can go to sign up.
What about our own individual choices around all of this? Which of those contribute to the problem? Perhaps that will be the next movie.
If I were to take this movie to heart, I would believe that the source of all our woes is Capitalism and Capitalists. If we got rid of it (and them) everything would be ok.
I once heard of something called “Grossman’s Law”. It goes something like this “For every complex problem, there is a simple, easy to understand, wrong answer”.
I try to remember that.
