Believe Michael Moore About Capitalism Like You Believe Ted Haggard About Homosexuality

Written by David SwindlecloseAuthor: DavidSwindle Name: David Swindle
Email: DavidSwindle@gmail.com
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About: I'm a free lance writer, film critic, and blogger. I frequently write about politics, ideology, spirituality, books, and TV. I am a graduate of Ball State University with degrees in English (creative writing) and Political Science. I live in Muncie, Indiana with my wife April, our cat Butters, and Siberian Husky puppy Maura. More about me here: http://frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35212See Authors Posts (11) on July 14, 2009

So Michael Moore has a new film coming out this fall about the recent economic crisis. It is called Capitalism: A Love Story, you can see a teaser trailer right here.

In it Moore presents a satire of the pre-screening commercials in which movie theatre patrons are asked to donate money to a noteworthy cause. And then – twist! – it turns out that the needy ones are corporate CEOs! Yeah you’ve just given them money through the government bailouts, but they’re suffering and need more of your money, because, y’know they’re capitalist vampires who will suck the life out of you.

And apparently Moore’s the Van Helsing, out to slay these corporate Twilight rejects. (There we go, two more crappy movies on par with Moore’s output.)

Those are kind of the terms you have to use when dealing with Moore. He makes jokes at us, thus we have to make jokes back at him. Be careful, though, you don’t want to hit him back too hard. Defenders of the free market face a problem when dealing with Moore. Whenever you fight something you empower it. So the tone needs to be carefully kept in check. Strike too hard with too forceful a tone and he’ll only be able to use it against us.

And so while David Horowitz might be right – and hilarious – when he slams Moore as a “fat communist pig,” ultimately the jab just bounces off, not unlike when the snow leopard villain Tai Lung is fighting the jolly Po at the end of “Kung Fu Panda.” It doesn’t work to call Moore what he is. It’s a waste of key strokes to explain in depth how Moore has merely replaced “proletariat” and “bourgeoisie” with “average Americans” and “corporate executives.” He employs the exact same structure of discredited Marxist class warfare between noble working people and exploitative capitalist overlords.

But Moore’s not an intellectual dealing in the world of ideas. He’s a capitalist selling a product — himself. He’s come to dominate the anti-capitalist market with his books and films. And he’s made millions of dollars for not just himself but for many a corporate CEO along the way. “Fahrenheit 9/11” is the most successful documentary of all time, bringing in $222 million worldwide.

Moore is so dense that he doesn’t realize that his very life is a refutation of everything in which he claims to believe. Moore’s open about his dislike for capitalism. As Horowitz’s Discover the Networks points out:

One of Moore’s most strongly held convictions is that, as he declared on the CNN program Crossfire in 2002, “Capitalism is a sin. This is an evil system.” In his 2003 book Dude, Where’s My Country? Moore wrote: “Horatio Alger must die! We’re addicted to this happy myth … that anyone can make it in America, and make it big. … Listen, friends, you have to face the truth: You are never going to be rich. … The system is rigged in favor of the few, and your name is not among them, not now and not ever.”

An ad hominem argument is when one attacks the speaker in an attempt to discredit his ideas. Am I doing that here? I don’t think there’s anything illegitimate about this argument. I’m just pointing out something indisputable: By his own actions Moore doesn’t believe his ideas himself. He started out as a college-drop out, a troublemaker that ran a leftist newspaper, The Flint Voice. Now he’s a millionaire who lives quite comfortable on Manhattan’s upper west side and sends his kids to private school. He’s someone stuffing his face with the fruit of the tree as he tries to convince others to chop it down. He’s selling the lie that others aren’t capable of doing what he did – reaching up and grabbing the fruit themselves.

I’ll be honest. I don’t think it’s worth taking the time to engage Moore’s anti-capitalist fantasies with any seriousness. The intellectual contest between communism and capitalism was fought by our parents’ and grandparents’ generations. All the arguments one could conceive of have already been made. (Just read Horowitz’s The Politics of Bad Faith or Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom or any number of texts.)

Capitalism won. Regardless of the recent downturn in the economy, capitalism has demonstrated itself to be a system that works to create wealth, inspired individuals, and prosperous societies. Let’s just acknowledge that, move on, and stop continuing our parents’ ideological battles.

Capitalism certainly paid off for Michael Moore the millionaire, just as it can for every American. Work hard, develop yourself, participate in the market, and you can provide for yourself and your family. You can succeed and be part of the American Dream. But Moore will never acknowledge that – it’d be too bad for his business.