The DVD comes with several interviews, and in one, Michael Moore concedes that after watching, most people will resume their normal lives and pretty much forget those uncomfortable facts. Even he couldn't stop from proclaiming the fundamental goodness of the USA. It's an uphill struggle.
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It is very difficult for people to seperate the relatively comfortable conditions of their lives - the result of unequalled freedom we're relentlessly told - from the realities of US foreign policy.
Also, Euro-Americans and successful recent immigrants are particularly taken with American mythology.
With the early European settlers, you have the story of a flight across the sea to escape religous tyranny.
Very romantic. For later arrivals - the Ellis island group - there's the epic tale of escape from abject poverty, the tyranny of ancient habits and so on.
Also, a very compelling story.
Good stories have a powerful hold upon the mind. I believe we're wired to fall in love with a good tale.
The grand tale of people leaving the bad old and finding freedom, material comfort and the ability to build the future in the good new is quite compelling and colors nearly everyone's perception of the United States.
Even African Americans and Native Americans, who can tell very different origin stories, have been able to fashion stirring tales of progress from the facts. Is it not true that I'm a relatively well paid *professional* worker who jets to Seoul, Tokyo and Berlin while my ancestors were slaves?
Again, another, deeply moving story.
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This is the emotional background lefite critiques of US foreign policy, capitalism and domestic equity face. We are competing against beautiful stories. When you say *the US is a great power and behaves as ruthlessly as previous great powers have* to someone who is spell-caught by the beautiful story you are offering to exchange a nightmare for their shimmering dream.
This isn't an exchange most people are willing to make - the facts notwithstanding.
The true challenge is the integration of the two narratives into one, factual account.
Lefties of the Democratic type have tried to accomplish this with the *we're a young nation* and *mistakes were made* explanations for everything from the Indian wars to Vietnam. They also tend to personalize national systemic criminality: Reagan was bad, Nixon was bad and so forth.
It's a clever enough tactic, one which allows you to save the mythological appearances while stating the facts.
Still, it's merely a lower dosage of the same narcotic.
To be honest, I don't know if this spell can be broken.
DRM