Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly for LA
'Capitalism' filmmaker Michael Moore isn't feeling the love By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY LOS ANGELES — Michael Moore is adding someone new to the list of people who drive him crazy. You. You know who you are. You saw Bowling for Columbine and didn't bother entering the gun control debate. You saw Sicko and didn't write your legislator. You watched Fahrenheit 9/11 and didn't vote.
. . . "I went through eight years of fighting one of the most disastrous presidencies this country has ever seen," he says. "And you know what, folks? I'm not doing this alone anymore. If you're going to sit on the bench and just wait for my next movie to come out, or watch Obama have to fight all these crazies (alone), I've got better things to do."
. . . "Sometime Michael Moore asks too much of us," says Michael Levine, author of Guerilla P.R., which examines grassroots marketing. "He wants us to address health care, or the deficit, and frankly, people already feel overwhelmed and would rather be entertained," Levine says. "He comes in and says, quite compellingly, that this house is pretty dirty. But a lot of people are saying they'll clean it tomorrow —American Idol is on tonight."
______________________________________ It's a sad (and dangerous) thing for a commentator to point a finger at his audience, but "Too Dumb for New York City, too Ugly for LA" is a Waylon Jennings song that points a self-deprecating finger at himself, so maybe it's OK.
Maybe it's time to point the gun at our own heads. Michael Levine says we'd rather be entertained, while 20% of Americans are out of work. Every available job has six unemployed scratching for it and all five of those six can do is explain to their partners that times are tough--wondering what to do about the mortgage and credit-cards close to default. Where the hell are we going to live? What if the kids get sick? It's always the kids--dad doesn't realize the stress he's under is more likely to put himself out of commission. The Great Depression of 1929 got some things accomplished that were out of control (but 'unsolvable') in 1928. The nation was flat on its ass. Do we really have to go there again before we care enough to hear the drumroll in the background? I guess so. Perhaps six houses in the neighborhood up for sale and friends we no longer stay in touch with because it's just too painful since they lost their job, is not yet enough. Moore is feeling down, but he'll be up again because it's in his DNA. It's you and I who are too dumb for New York City, too ugly for LA. What's on at seven o'clock tonight?