Posted 4:26 AM by Paul
American Volatility

Michael Moore has a new book coming out called "Dude, Where's My Country?" and the newspapers over here are full of it. It is sure to follow "Stupid White Men" up the best sellers list. This is good news as it proves my not very original theory that there are a whole lot more Americans who reject the World According to Bush Jr. than you would think if all you did was watch Fox News.

It also proves that there is a market for an alternative voice even if that voice is hectoring, boring and at times inaccurate. I admire Moore's energy and bravery, but he is not a great writer and in many instances he is simply plain wrong. For an example, turn to the chapter entitled "Idiot Nation" in SWM in which you will see a neat table called "Presidential Clip and Carry - List of Leaders of 50 Largest Countries - in order of country's size."

It's part of a very funny indictment of Bush's lack of any understanding of the world outside Texas and Washington. But the table is wrong. It is littered with basic mistakes. Ukraine (230,000 square miles) and the Congo (910,000 square miles ) are listed as being smaller than Italy (120,000 square miles ). A small error but if you are criticising your enemies for having a cavalier attitude to the truth, you have to get this kind of thing right.

I read a few excerpts of Moore's new book which is being serialised in the liberal leaning Guardian newspaper. It followed the format and style of SWM and after a while I put it down due to its patronising tone.

Reading Moore is like being locked in room with a junior high school student who has just found out 35 years too late that US Forces dropped Agent Orange defoliant on Vietnam and thought that this was hot news. The tone of his writing in the parts of the new book that I have read is also very whiney. It seems that every other paragraph is headed

" Did you know that the Bush adminstration...?"

Well the truth is that millions of Americans do know that the US Adminstration is not telling them the truth, but the question they would fire back to his critics is:

" I know what you think but what would you do if you were in power today?"

Moore's style of condescending preaching is what drives so many people into the arms of Right-wing ultra-conservatives. At least Regan never treated the voters like naughty schoolkids. Ronnie may have presided over an economy that saw millions of them lose their jobs but he didn't patronise them. In fact he flattered them.

Saying that the trouble with the USA is that millions of people are not as witty and insightful as Michael Moore, is not a tactic designed to attract widespread approval. In the UK we also have to be very careful when we blame the ills of the world on "stupid Americans". Americans are no more stupid than any other nation. It is just that their stupidty, when it occurs, has far greater consequences than, say, the stupidity of the Belgians.

The UK also has its fair quota of the terminally misinformed. During the Falklands War in 1982 a majority of the respondents to a newspaper poll thought that the Falklands were off the coast of Scotland. Margaret Thatcher thought that we could have our ships off the coast of the islands in 3 days when in fact in takes three weeks. I studied briefly at university with a Spanish man who refused point-blank to believe than Jesus was a Jew.
I recently watched BBC TV politics panel show in which a New Labour appointee claimed that our weakness in not confronting Saddam after the end of the Gulf War had led to the gassing of Kurds at Hallabjah. In fact the gas attacks happened several years before the Gulf War. There was no cause and effect. His statement (either based on knowing deceit or ignorance) was not challenged by the moderator, other panelists or the studio audience. No - the UK has more than its own share of liars, scoundrels and useful idiots.

On the plus, side Moore gives hope to millions of Progressive Americans who hitherto believed that they were alone. For that we should be thankful and maybe I should stop my own whineing. I will never win an Oscar or sell 10 million books.

And one last thing: I am proud to come from a left wing tradition that includes some the traditions of Liberal England. However, in the USA Liberal means weak. The Americans may vote for universal socialised medicine, but they will never vote for something they see as effete and un-virile. US Liberals need to start calling themselves Progressive to latch on to a great American tradition of perpetual modernisation - eyes on the far horizons etc.

Maybe what the US needs is anti Big-Business left wing Southerner who believes that the rich should pay more to help those lower down the ladder climb a few rungs, but who also eats squirrel, shoots bears and listens to C&W.