From the Field

Good and Evil: The Trouble with Capitalism, Michael Moore Edition

October 7th, 2009

I emerged from my hole on Sunday to see Michael Moore’s latest assault on yet another piece of America’s rich cultural tapestry: capitalism! Yes, capitalism—great pillar of American heritage, defining source of pride for fans of free enterprise—has finally been exposed as a thorny beast swaddled in sheep’s cloth and entrenched in our values, taking from the have-nots and giving (and giving, and giving) to the haves. All of this I gathered from the film’s trailer, so I was interested to see how Moore would dissect it over the course of an entire film. Would he, in the span of two hours, deftly deconstruct all of our misconceptions and crumple the mythology that has long told us of capitalism’s inherent good? Would he instantaneously destroy our country’s corporate architecture with an explosion of insight and carefully selected edits? And would Mr. Moore make Capitalism: A Love Story the kind of catalyst that would suddenly bring light to so many of us in the dark? Spoiler Alert! He does not achieve the impossible. But he does raise important questions.

Shooting the Messenger

I was under no false pretense about what this film would deliver. I’ve seen every Michael Moore film to date and I know that he is, at his best, a thoughtful and essential critic of established societal norms as they pertain to middle-class America. He’s good with a story and an edit, and he’s not afraid to be lambasted in public for the sake of sparking conversation. At worst, he’s an agitator, a propagandist, and a showman whose attempts to fan the flames of plebeian revolt only serve to diminish the country’s ability to have a serious discourse about important issues. He’s too much of a target, he’s too radical, he’s an instrument of the pink-commie-leftist agenda.

Moore has become a kind of caricature that’s easy to represent with the type of rhetorical broad strokes I’ve written above, and he will no doubt be a central figure of criticism cast alongside the film over the next month of media hype. Which is unfortunate, because I think the content of the film, the genesis of his endeavor and the story that Moore has attempted to encapsulate is incredibly important and timely and it should be discussed. The overarching question—Is capitalism as it exists in modern America a good or an evil?—is bigger than a single two hour film, it’s bigger than a Sunday News talk show spat, and it’s certainly bigger than Michael Moore, the liberal boogeyman who will undoubtedly hand out fiddles when America inevitably burns to the ground.

Re-opening the Wounds

So forget about Michael Moore’s relationship to that gigantic, cumbersome question because his role is irrelevant. He has achieved what I imagine he set out to do with his film, which is to throw a little more fuel on that small, slow-burning flame of middle-class ire that was sparked a year ago when the banking industry brought the economy to its knees, swallowed an incredible fuckton of taxpayer money and turned it into millions of dollars worth of executive bonuses. He helpfully reminded me of the desperate imbalance between those with money and access to power and those without, the impossible compensatory rift between those at the top and those at the bottom (or the middle, for that matter). He stirred my anger and stoked my feelings of injustice. He asked, at the end of the film, for me to join him out there, wrapping crime scene tape around a bank and asking annoyed and disinterested building security guards for our money back.

And then I walked out of the theatre and into the lobby, which just happens to be situated in a multi-floor mall filled with the storefronts of capitalist pigs I think I’m supposed to be fighting against, and I thought:

Because good goddamn, it’s big. It’s so incredibly, impossibly huge! Capitalism is such a colossal Hydra of dependencies and relationships that no God-fearing man could begin to know how to take it apart—if, in fact, that is what anyone is suggesting. Which I’m not. Who would suggest that? I love America! Pass me another Bud Light! HAHAHAHA—[Note: Budweiser's brewing company is no longer an American enterprise thanks to the wonders of capitalism].

The point is that there is a lot to discuss and unpack and address. How does one effectively measure the success of America’s bedrock principle, that romanticized notion of free enterprise that says the system exists to support and uplift hardworking souls, to naturally select for good ideas over bad, to dangle the carrot of fabulous wealth that could be your reward if you just work hard enough for your piece of the pie? How do we define whether capitalism is a good or an evil, whether it’s working for a majority of Americans or not? And what happens if, when all the standards have been set and measurements made, we determine that—goodness gracious!—our beloved system is fundamentally broken? There is no magic bullet fix, there is no definable alternative to rally behind; there isn’t even a rough outline that might help us begin to address the failures.

Injustice for All (Except the Richest 1%)

I thought about all of this as I wandered my way out of that multi-floor mall. I thought about all the evidence Michael Moore had presented in his film: all the damning footage of corporations cutting the heart right out of our country and the complicity of our own government in the fleecing of taxpayer faith and funds. I thought about the unluckiest of us that have suffered as a direct result of deregulation, bank failures, and the mortgage industry implosion. I considered some of the counterpoints, the points of view that weren’t shared in this story of American capitalism and the kind of rebuttals I was sure would shortly follow the release of the film. And I am still trying to digest the enormity of the issue.

These were not new thoughts or new feelings, nor were they newly illuminated by the findings of what turned out to be a fairly rambling, disconnected film. But I can say with certainty that I left the theatre with an overwhelming sense of wrong. Something, I’m certain, is wrong with the way capitalism works in America today. No single person will ever be able to meet the incredible challenge of fixing things—unless, say, Jesus returns to earth and he’s just like they depicted him in that book—and I suppose that’s why Michael Moore requested help at the end of his film; he says, specifically, “join me.” Join him, a man alone, angry and asking questions and raising enough fresh wounds via film to hopefully spark an effective and fruitful conversation in this country. I think I’d like to be part of that conversation, so expect more thoughts on the subject in the future and please share some of your own in the comments.

Now can someone please pass me a cold, locally-and-ethically-brewed beer from a company that’s collectively owned by its employees? Ahhhhh, capitalism!

Previous Post Next Post