Hollywood Then and Now - Part 2

Note: This is the second half of a two part essay, comparing Disney's efforts during WW2 and Michael Moore's efforts in the War on Terror.

[ Part 1 ]

Many of the films in the Disney collection are silly, but the core message was fundamentally true. The Nazis were a menace to democracy, and they really did indoctrinate their children into a Nietzschean dogma of their racial superiority. Although the Nazis did not have bubble butts, the philosophy and it's threat to our civilization caricaturized were accurately presented, which was the whole point.

Moore on the other hand, has no sense of honor when it comes to facts, even contradicting his own narrative. On one hand W is an idiot cowboy, on the other he is a genius mastermind. Disney's presentation of youth indoctrination was based on published materials from Nazi Germany. Moore's accusations are based on McCarthy-like guilt by association and innuendo.

Though Saddam Hussein is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, his regime is given greater moral tolerance than the Bush Administration. Baghdad is shown full children flying kites under azure skies until the George Bush War Machine swoops down to wreak havoc. That non kite-flying children that were released from a prison by American G.I.s after the fall of Baghdad go unmentioned.

This sort of imbalance poisons both Moore's book and his movie. Even though mathematically there has been a net gain of thousands of lives in Iraq now that Hussein is gone and U.N. sanctions are lifted, Moore exploits tragic wartime deaths to exact moral equivalence between the dictator and the current administration. This treatment of inconvenient facts would make Leni Riefenstahl blush.

Most disturbing is how many people seem to be spooning this up. A cursory consideration of just a slightly broader set of historical facts causes this nonsense to collapse, yet mainstream leaders like former New York governor Mario Cuomo are lending their credibility to Moore's shabby rant.

If a society is to be free, smart, talented people like Moore must ply their skills honestly. There is no way free people can make good decisions with bad information. I think the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia deserves a great deal of scrutiny, but the complete truth must be told. Instead of taking this sort of task seriously Moore's went for the cheap stuff, the easy ovation of likeminded fools.

By lowering the standard of proof so low, to the level of casual association, Moore actually sets in motion the very thing that he seems to fear. The Right is ascendant, and while I would like to think that we are less likely to be so carefree with such serious topics, no man is completely immune. In fifty years, when Fox News rules the airwaves, would Moore want his favored people destroyed using the same standard of proof?

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Tim McNabb