Doug writes:
> I don't think Moore's point is that literal
Jordan responds: I'm not even sure Moore _has_ a point, literal or otherwise. Most of that part of the movie is "statement in the form of a question" that serves mostly to be funny and to show how clever Moore is. **************** That's your review of the movie. Mine is that he's showing how different life is just across the Detroit River. Why is it that Canadians feel safer? Why is it that Canadians are shooting each other like they are in Murder City right across the water? Why is it that a racially divergent Canada doesn't have the same violent divide as the racially mixed America?
I'd say it's the same reason that I feel safer in Australia than I did in America. You don't see cops all over the place, stopping people on the streets, ready to shoot at the drop of a hat. Very few cops shooting at people in Australia. I haven't heard of one case since in the four years I've been here. The same thing comes back at you. Very few people ever use guns to rob or murder. Very few murders as well. You just don't suspect that 14 year old kid at the bus stop might have a gun in his knapsack. In the Bay Area I knew, depending on the time of day and the neighbourhood, that just wasn't the case.
The overall climate of fear is much less in this capitalist society and I'd say that that has a lot to do with the issue of social caring which is implied in the fact that, if you're poor in Oz, you have free medical care and if you're unemployed in Oz, you can get dole payments until you find a job. This leads to a set of social relations which make people less edgy and anxious, even though most of them are still wage-slaves. This leads to a society where scapegoating the weak via say, family violence is less pronounced. Less abuse leads to a less abusive society. This kind of societal attitude springs more from the "no worries mate" kind of feeling one generally encounters here. IN America, the general feeling is one of "hooray for me, f**k you." That's why so many people feel comfortable voting for chumps like Shrub and his Republican police state specialists.
In other words, like Canada, Australia is a less anxiety ridden, stressful, alienated capitalist State than America is. I think that's Moore's point in "Bowling for Columbine".
Best, Mike B)
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