On Michael Moore, and Using Your Voice

Originally posted October 10, 2003:

I have been trying for two days to make a livejournal post on Michael Moore, Flint Michigan, and passion in politics. Today I had the whole thing written out and the entire network crashed on campus, and I lost every bit of it. Last night I had most of it written out, but I got distracted by this woman who saw me reading his latest book Dude, Where's My Country? and began a discussion that pretty much took up the next two hours straight, so I was unable to post it then.

As you probably know, the book came out Tuesday; I bought my copy last night before shift, and I've been really amazed-- all over Bloomington I've been toting this book around and people, especially students, have been dying to see it. Everybody's been asking me how it is. I tell them it's more of the same brand of investigative, sarcastic journalism we got in Stupid White Men, only up to date and with more serious, perhaps more urgent, a voice.

Michael Moore's voice is a funny thing. By many accounts he may in fact be a belligerent asshole--but if he is I have to say it doesn't matter much to me, because he's also one of the most sincere, most determined, passionate voices for political change and reform I've ever seen. His voice is the single most important thing the liberal left has going for it. His voice is a populist voice--in touch with the people that the republicans are shunning and the democrats have forgotten about, strong, loud, obnoxious, and tireless. It's the kind of voice that gets heard above the crowd, and it is being heard.

I went off yesterday on the poor gentleman who took issue with my tone and style of voice in my last post. I thought his main gripe was because I was, according to him, being "perfervid" and getting lost in grand hyperbole instead of utilizing reasoned rhetoric. This really pissed me off, and I told him why.

Ever since then I've been thinking about what passion is�what it does when it's channelled correctly, and what breeds it.

Particularly, I've been thinking about Michael Moore's brand of passion. I think it's because he came from Flint, the city with the highest crime and highest unemployment of its kind in the nation, the city that was devastated when GM shut down and laid off 60 thousand people in the 80's. I think it's because he had to watch that happen, because he grew steadily more and more outraged and fed up until he reached the point where he just ceased to give a fuck about tact, about discretion, about politeness, and just began to focus on getting the word out, about making people aware, about getting people to listen and getting them to act.

He's like Moses, in a way.

ca. 2000 B.C.:
Moses to Pharoah: Let My People Go!
Pharo