LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Friday, October 9, 2009

"Capitalism, A Love Story"

Not everyone likes Michael Moore's work, probably because the pedantic-polemical-political points of his films.  However, as well as those three P's informing is films, Moore brings  imaginative film-making techniques to bear upon his works.  Taking people to Guantánamo to get health care in Sicko for instance, was brilliant. There are many scenes equal to that brilliance in Capitalism, A Love Story. But maybe my favorite bit was Jesus speaking as representative of this so very xtian nation; Jesus is asked, "When will there be heaven on earth?" Jesus responds, "When the banking industry is de-regulated."


Once again, Moore says what by consensus has been unsayable: that capitalism, a system nowhere mandated in the US Constitution, is intrinsically predatory.
It's not particularly Republican-bashing (well, there is a scene with darth vadar ....). One of the villains of Capitalism is Senator Christopher Dodd, who took sweet deals from Countrywide Financial, while Marcy Kaptur (the Ohio representative who urged people not to allow themselves to be evicted from their homes) comes off as a hero.

There are some scenes that that must have been shot around the period when enraged screwed-over people gathered at the New York Stock Exchange yelling, "Jump! Jump! Jump!" Moore has said in an interview, that while at the NYSE the NY cops came up to him and the crew. He told them “Hey guys, we’re just here to film a little comedy and we won’t be long,” thinking they were going to run him and crew off. The cops responded, “Mike, these bastards took a billion and a half dollars out of our police retirement fund so you just take your time.” Moore said it was priceless.

Where has that anger gone? It was as though Obama's election put everybody back to sleep. Not me, of course. But then I am famous for insomnia.

You surely have seen Sicko. That was the nail in the coffin for me -- as if I needed another one -- for Hillary Clinton running for POTUS. I thought that at least Obama wasn't in the health insurance racketeers' pocket$. But now he's in everyone's pocket$. As Moore points out in Capitalism, the biggest funders of his campaign are the people running the Treasury now. Wholly bought and paid for, he is.

The film's final declaration is "I refuse to live in a country like this, and I'm not leaving."

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