the not-so-divine agent of change, Citizen Moore
(Mr. Moore Has Balls)

I’ve yet to see the film and I understand that it is highly biased, but it seems that all the railing against Michael Moore for his film Fahrenheit 9.11 is equally overblown.

I’ve watched a few interviews of him online and it seems that the world of journalism has taken his criticism of them to heart. His ranting in regards to what he feels has been an inability, or fear perhaps, to pose probing questions seems somewhat valid considering the obsequious nature of what I have read regarding coverage of the Bush administration over the last couple of years.

There’s also a bit of irony in Moore’s means of free speech. The hyperbolic taint almost seems as if it is applying a coat of mockery to what is otherwise a serious examination of our complacency with the decisions of the war-mongering monkey-king.

Mr. Moore deserves a lot of credit for his effort, despite the film’s extreme position. For perhaps this is what it takes for people to actually pay attention, and subsequently to question the status quo.

Obviously, when hundreds of men and women are coming home in body bags in the name of a conflict which most of their countrymen have expressed they do not support, something is wrong and maybe something more drastic has to be done in order to inculcate change.

Like using the mass-media to sway an election perhaps? Surely, the governor of California and his late predecessor understand the power of this time-tested principle of mass-influence.

Once again, I have yet to see this controversial film, but I have seen Moore’s other cinematic feats and he deserves the attention and accolades. Audiences may not like his feisty style of making noise, and thus it may turn away some from taking what he has to say seriously. Nonetheless, Moore deserves an A+ for effort. He has practically single-handedly fired up a debate over greatly important issues. Issues that have long waned in the muck of political-correctness, the mud of righteous proselytizing that the Chief Primate and his minions have long slung at the masses in order to instill fear and conformity.

Jacob Bronowski in his bookThe Origins of Knowledge and Imagination speaks to “the heroism of being a contradictory man.” He writes that “the maverick personality” is often the basis of some of the most creative and change-making minds. Moore, deserves this title.

Otherwise, if there was absolutely no validity in what Moore draws out with much flare in his film, people would not be attending, millions would not be pouring into the box office, and cartoonists would not be having their latest field day.

It takes quite a bit of courage to do as Michael Moore has accomplished. Personally, I may eventually exit the theater incredulous to what I have just paid a Franklin for, but that should not belittle the recognition I give to this brave filmmaker here and now.

“You know, Shakespeare and Goethe were just as troublesome to their teachers at school as Leonardo and, say, Rutherford. The creative personality is always one that looks on the world as fit for change and on himself as instrument for change. Otherwise, what are you creating for? If the world is perfectly all right the way it is, you have no place in it. The creative personality thinks of the worlds as a canvas for change and of himself as a divine agent of change.”

~ The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, Jacob Bronowski

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