KARMA MAN

This entry is the first part of the section entitled "The Innovator" in my essay "Yes, He Makes Movies", devoted to Mike's contribution to film.


In a confrontational interview following the release of BFC and in the wake of the anti-Moore mania that was soon to win over each and every conformist heart, one by one, the Lying Man of Truth has defended his methods.

He was inspired on this day. In a tremendously powerful and convincing, yet casual, demonstration, the Man of Truth converts doubting but unwary Rob Blackwelder, who should have run from the light to keep his illusions, by sheer means of rationality and common sense. This masterly display of the power of dialectics is called “Gunning for Michael Moore” – a title that was surely found after the meeting actually took place - and it sure is something to read, actively read and witness.

Rob first confesses to having “a problem with some of Moore's conclusions and many of his methods, including some of his blindsiding interview tactics, his tendency in this film to leave out information that could provide a bigger picture when talking about specific cases of gun violence, and his scattershot way of assigning blame.”

He consequently takes Mike to task, asking him from scratch why he didn’t place any blame at the feet of the uncle who left the gun where the kid could find it, but went to L.A. to hassle Dick Clark instead, even though he really had no connection to the event except that he was a major shareholder in the restaurant that got a tax break for hiring the welfare mom.

Mike answers precisely : “Blaming the uncle for having the gun there in his house was done sufficiently by the mainstream media. Because I live there, I saw all that. The uncle not only was blamed, but he's now in prison.” And those familiar with the F9/11 controversies will have recognized here the “No blame on Saddam” pattern.

He then elaborates on the mother’s doomed two jobs karma, which forced her to involve the uncle.

RB: OK, I'll give you that. I'll give you that, but...

MICHAEL MOORE: That's a big give, though!

RB: I understand the problems with the welfare-to-work...

MICHAEL MOORE: It's not just problems with the welfare-to-work. It's inherently evil. It's an act of terrorism.

And those familiar with the Roger and Me controversies will have remembered the factory/Mc Veigh exploding buildings crosscut pattern.

Now for Dick Clark, and also in karmic terms : “his is the Dick Clark restaurant, it is his name and he is a shareholder in it, and he profits from it. He didn't put the gun under the bed that the boy found. He didn't shoot the little girl. But he was trying to benefit from her poverty. He was trying to get a tax break. (…) That's his little role in it, and he can't just divorce himself from it.”

And the Socratic lecture ends in the same spiralling ricochet logic, involving capitalist selfishness which just CAN’T DIVORCE ITSELF FROM THE POLITICS OF FEAR : "I wanted to say something much larger about how society is manipulated by politicians and corporations into being in a constant state of panic and fear," Moore asserted, "and how once you get the population whipped up like that, conservative regimes can get just about anything they want out of the people without firing a shot."

“Since I'm not pretending to be an objective journalist in this article, I'll just conclude by saying, Amen to that, Brother”, Rob has to conclude with suitable but all too rare humility.

(All excerpts from http://www.splicedonline.com/02features/mimoore.html )


Call Michael Moore The Karma Man. The one who understands the intermingling and intertwining of personal responsibilities to an extent which makes him able to grasp the Superior Truth inherent to his seemingly tiny topics, by means of spiralling ricochets. That’s how he’s far, far beyond his original inspiration – Nick Broomfield. (see next post)