Michael Moore Responds

Dhlazare at aol.com Dhlazare at aol.com
Wed May 27 14:20:13 PDT 1998


A friend writes:

If the left would learn to speak not only

with a beginning, middle and end but also with a sense of humor and a sense of

humanity instead of simply enjoying the sound of its own ineffective and

irrelevant voice, maybe we'd all get somewhere...

I want to see the name-calling cease -- it ain't getting us

anywhere. Stop insulting people like me with statistics on how many retail

workers there are -- "they're working class, too!" -- we already know this! If

you don't own the business, you're part of the working class as far as I'm

concerned. Unfortunately, because certain people either forget where they came

from or believe that because they have a degree or two they're not like the

"rest of us," we waste a lot of time bickering over all this bullshit when all

of our energy should be directed at those in power who run the whole freakin'

mess we're in....

And It is not I who believes the working class is like the Bundy family.

Sadly, it's many of you and others on the "left" who don't think we read

poetry or can speak a foreign language or understand that Roger Smith is only

a symbol. We don't want to turn the opera house into a bowling alley; we want

you to take down your invisible "Do Not Enter" sign and let us in.


>>I think these excerpts are pretty revealing. Not only is the left
"ineffective," apparently, but it is downright "irrelevant." If so, what is MM trying to accomplish with his movies -- advance a non-leftist critique of capitalism? He insists he wants the name-calling to cease, but in the next breath accused Doug of "insulting people like me" with statistics about the make-up of the working class. One moment he is pleading for gentility, the next he is exuding hostility. "...[W]e waste a lot of time bickering ... when all our energy should be directed at those in power" -- but to what end? What is our goal? What should we replace the current "freakin' mess" with? "We don't want the opera house turned into a bowling alley..." -- again the use of the of the royal we. What makes MM think he speaks in behalf of the working class? Has he been elected to some position of leadership that I don't know of? Or has he simply used his showbiz talents to grab center-stage. Socialism = working-class democracy = the creation of institutions by which workers can debate politics, adopt programs, and fight for political change. It does not mean some narcissist announcing to the world that he knows what the working class wants because, hey, he once worked for 12G's a year, so the rest of the world better listen up. The danger of this sort of demagogy should be all too apparent by now.

Dan Lazare.



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