For better or worse, I have spent the last six years or so as a “go-to” authority on Michael Moore. In 2002, he said some things about my country that I was hurt by and some things about life that I held to be untrue. I set out to make my first film, a little documentary called “Michael Moore Hates America” and began a journey that would be at times inspiring and disheartening. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have seen that movie, but I’m now ready to close that chapter of my life with a few words about Mr. Moore and his opus on the death of American capitalism.
In the 1980s, Michael Moore was broke. He saw things he believed to be wrong in the world and set out to tell a story about them. His first movie “Roger and Me” was a success. He followed it with a bomb called “Canadian Bacon” and then rebounded by winning Oscars and smashing box office records. He built a better life for his family and put his daughter through private schools by creating and marketing a product a lot of people bought. He became a multimillionaire because of the power of the unrestrained liberties we know in America as Capitalism and Freedom of Speech.
Having visited many countries around the world, like China, as an example, I can tell you that those two liberties don’t always mutually exist. I’ve seen along the way that you can have economic liberty without political freedom (the factories in China are going gangbusters, but you can’t say whatever you want). But you can’t have political freedom without economic liberty. If it is required of you to receive equally from the state, the state WILL curtail your ability to express yourself.
Moore has marketed the hell out of himself as a rabble-rousing champion of the Little Guy and the Little Guy has bought so many books and movie tickets and to Moore’s $30,000-a-pop speeches that he must not know what to do with all of that green. Now, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time is about to release a new product in the marketplace, hoping it will make him even richer (because every filmmaker wants people to see his movie, money is a byproduct of successful box-office). But this product reportedly decries the very system that has brought Moore unimaginable riches and a better life for his daughter, and anyone he chooses to share the wealth with.
In his upcoming film “Capitalism: A Love Story” Moore reportedly says, “Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil.”
I cannot express how these words break my heart. I’ve always held out hope that Moore is not a bad person, despite a lot of evidence I’ve seen first-hand and heard second-hand. I’ve always just hoped that we disagree on a lot and that his heart was in the right place… a place of compassion for the downtrodden. But this changed when I read that line today.
Michael Moore is actively working to deny people the same opportunities that he has had, the same successes he has experienced, the same chance to make your own life better through hard work, sheer determination and rugged individualism. These are principles that our Founders understood well as they forged a new nation where the individual would triumph over the collective and where a shot at the brass ring would come with the risk of failure. They understood these ideas so well that they pledged their Lives, their Fortunes and their Sacred Honour to defend them against an oppressive government that was trying to prevent them from carving out their own destinies.
In the last few years, I’ve experienced Capitalism first-hand as a small business owner. There have been some ups, where we have had a little extra in the bank account, and were able to grab a few extra clothes for the kids, or a few rides at Nickelodeon Universe (at the Mall of America here in Minnesota) and a lot of downs, where we have had to scrape and skimp and choose to cut things that Socialism certainly might provide, like health insurance for me, a luxury that I’ve gladly skipped out on so that we can afford to cover my two children. But in a capitalist system, my destiny is mine, and mine alone. And the sacrifices we make as we try to get a new business rolling will almost certainly pay off, if we work hard enough, long enough and outlast the punches that life throws at us.
Rocky Balboa said, “The world ain’t all butterflies and rainbows. It’s a mean and nasty place and it’ll beat you to your knees if you let it.” But my 18 month-old son is running around the house behind me as I type these words and I don’t intend to be beaten. I intend to show my son that he can count on himself and his character and his determination and smarts because Capitalism allows you to fight through the punches and take the hits and push through the pain to a better life. I will teach him that an extraordinary life is possible.
America is a shining city on a hill, a beacon for all those in the world who yearn for liberty and freedom. She remains the greatest example of how an individual can take an idea and turn it into a life of beauty and success. And while she is not perfect and never has been, I believe in her.
Michael Moore will undoubtedly make a brilliant case for why this nation of individuals should be broken apart brick-by-brick and remade into a nation of the collective where outcomes are largely equal, but where the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life is extinguished forever. The folks in Washington right now are doing their best to bring Moore’s vision of a great nation of the equal to life by shutting down the engine of liberty and forever transforming how we all live our lives.
Part of me hopes that Michael Moore’s movie makes hundreds of millions of dollars and that he suddenly wakes up from the slumber of logic he has been in for many years while the opportunity to choose to help the downtrodden and poor has passed him by. But I now see what Moore truly is in a different light, and success will only encourage him to lie to more people and mislead them about the opportunities that await them, should they only dream. After all, he’s a rich and powerful capitalist. The same thing he’s teaching his audience to hate. Irony, in a word.
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