When Fortune Magazine invited me to speak at their event, I was pretty amused. I'm partial to irony so to come to the New York Athletic Club and talk to the ruling class I thought would be pretty funny and give me a chance to whack around a few rich guys. Fortune had just run a piece attacking me, so I was all the more ready for battle.
Doug did a good job describing what happened... kind of a weird night and the questions were virtually incoherent. My comments about Microsoft were off the cuff -- I hadn't really given it any thought -- and Doug sent me a great note describing Gates' history which was all news to me and very helpful. Thanks.
I have admired Doug for many years, used his writings as a reference point and suggested to others that they pay attention to his important work. So it was kind of sad to read him say that my politics are "underdeveloped...and ad hoc," that my idea that the auto companies be forced to develop mass transit systems was "surreal," and that my quote from the Bible about the rich not getting into heaven apparently did not include my (rich) self. He also said that "gets" what "Cockburn's beef is with Moore."
Others in this group followed with posts saying that my politics were "rather superficial and simmplistic," that I've "been tainted by my very success," that "Roger & Me" made fun and "caricatures" of working people and held them "in contempt" especially the rabbit woman. Worst of all, someone offered that "TV Nation" had very low ratings (I always love it when the left follows the Neilsens!)
Part of these attitudes, I understand is class-based. Those of us from the working class know what you think of our "underdeveloped" politics. We think you're a bunch of smarty-pants and we know you've never really worked a day in your life when we shake your hand and feel how smooth it is, how clean the fingernails are. We have to stop thinking less of you because you really do mean well and are working to create a more equitable distribution of the wealth. But you've got to understand a few things about us. Much of our humor is sardonic, it enjoys ridicule of those in the upper class, and it is self- depreicating to the point of laughing along with members of our own class in order to relieve some of the pain we're feeling. The rabbit woman was a brave individual, not nuts at all. When people with money find themselves laughing AT her, they should examine what that's all about. Maybe they feel a little guilty. Maybe they should.
Humor is an incredible means by which to convey a devastating and subversive message. It's sad to see that the importance of this has been lost on much of the left.
My comments in the Nation about those who went to Nicaragua in the 80s were not meant as a put down. I went to Nicaragua in the 80s. It was my responsibility as a citizen to try and stop our war against the people there. I was only asking why the left ALSO didn't come to Flint. Contrary to the fantasy expressed by the Wayne State professor, there were no huge demonstrations or "mass arrests" there -- just a deafening silence. There was no "left" in Flint; those of us with this kind of underdeveloped and simplistic politics used to refer to ourselves as "Left Out."
I don't know what "Cockburn's beef" is with me because I haven't read any of his complaints. I heard he wrote something about me, but I will not engage in any sort of mudslinging with someone who once saved my life and who I will consider a friend to my dying days.
Some of you seem to have a problem when one of us becomes what you consider "successful." I don't understand this. Why aren't you celebrating the fact that someone with a left agenda has had a best-selling book, movie and TV show? Isn't it great that "our" meassge has reached millions of people? How can we build on this? Snide comments about my supposed "wealth" are, well, just like the comments made by the editors of Fortune. You have no idea what I make or what I do with it. Some of you have written in to tell about the grants I have given (over 70 groups to date have been funded by the profits from my work) so thanks for pointing that out. I am certainly doing better than I ever have before (that's one of the main desires of the working class, to be able to have a decent place to live and send the kids to school; those not from the working class always get their underwear in a bunch when we finally are able to achieve a few of those "things" they already have and "move into the neighborhood").
I spent the first 18 years of my adult life making an average of $12,000 a year. If any of you are of that class and want to criticize me, then I welcome your comments.
I don't know how to respond to those who do not get the ironic, satircal remarks I've made about Hillary or Time Warner. Irony, like one's favorite color, cannot be explained.
When I was fired from Mother Jones, I came to New York to meet with other left/progressive publications in the hopes of finding work. I was turned down by them all. It then dawned on me what I had done wrong. I had, in chosing to shut down my alternative paper in Flint and go to Mother Jones, betrayed my own class. I bought a millionaire's line that I could do in SanFrancisco on a national level what I had been doing in Flint. But that was not to be the case. I was supposed to, in truth, be the step-n-fetchit, to run the articles THEY wanted to run but didn't want to actually do the physical day to day work in order to churn out the magazine. So when I was asked to do things that were against my conscience, I was shown the door.
But I still didn't get it. So I went to see other well-to-do "lefties" in the hopes they would hire me. Rejected and dejected, I went back home and one day decided to make "Roger & Me." It was the smartest thing I ever did. But it only happened because I said to hell with "the left" and focused on my own roots and my sense of humor which I had lost.
Ok, enough of this maudlin tale. You get the picture. Keep up the great work all of you are doing. We live under an economic system that is unfair, unjust and undemocratic -- and it must be replaced. I know that all of you feel the same way and it has been interesting reading your comments on a variety of subjects. Thanks again for listening to my rant and feel free to e-mail me.
Michael Moore