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Moore, M. 2003. Dude, where's my country?.Allen Lane, London,
UK. Rating: JJ About the Author: Michael Moore is a writer and a film maker. His most recent film, "Bowling for Columbine" is a lucid reflection on today's gun culture in America's schools. His last book, 'Stupid White Men' was a bestseller in the United States for months on end, suggesting that his counter-propaganda humour appeals to a large section of American society. He lives in Michigan. Publications by the same author:
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Review Armed only with solid facts and his incisive humour, Moore's latest publication drills holes in the Bush 2004 campaign. However, he also damages his own credibility by hinting at his support for General Wesley Clarke in the upcoming US elections (later events confirmed Moore's support for Clarke). Certainly, Moore makes a good case that ANYTHING is better than Bush, and that the priority is to remove Bush. He forgets to mention Clarke's past record as the coordinator of the bombing campaign against Serbia, an attack not sanctioned by the UN and probably in breach of NATO's charter as a DEFENSIVE organisation. In fact, Moore's only criticism of the Democrats is that they are spineless losers. A more logical reason not to vote Democrat would be their own track record, which is not too different from that of the Bush administration. Indeed, in Stupid White Men, Moore is far more lucid when he explains: "The truth is, the choice between Bush's 'compassionate conservatism' and Clintonism is no more meaningful than the choice between castor oil and cherry-flavoured Robitussin". Readers disppointed by Moore's latest book could read Gore Vidal's Dreaming War instead. Vidal's book is a far more insightful analysis of US 'democracy' and imperialism. However, Moore's book is not without its attractions. Indeed, it is at its most humorous when it cuts through the Orwellian propaganda of the Republicans (the 'coalition of the willing', which includes such superpowers as Albania, or the 'war on terror', which he qualifies as 'war on a noun'). Far from being the mythical 'land of opportunity', Moore's America is a place where inequalities between rich and poor are wider than ever before, where tax cuts benefit only the rich, where the government and mass media are in bed with big corporations, and where all of these players are using illusory foreign threats to terrorise people into giving up more of their freedom, sacrificing thousands of innocent human lives in the process. Moore's only flaw is to think that anything will change if the Democrats come to power. Nic |
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