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Manufacturing Dissent 2 December 07

Section: article

Categories: dvd

This film is about Michael Moore and is worth a viewing. The filmmakers ostensibly started out as supporters of Michael Moore, but in the process of trying to interview him (sounds familiar) the tenor of the film shifts towards a more critical view of him.

The issue of Moore is problematic: I am certain that he is a concerned man and that he is opposed to many injustices which should be opposed.

I feel there are two basic problems with him: one is that his politics are unquestioningly reformist, in other words he feels that the “system” can be reformed. That is understandable, many people feel that, but his stake in that takes precedence over more important questions of really eradicating these injustices, a stance which would at least require questioning the foundations of our political economy. In other words a more radical world view. The second problem is that I feel his manipulative methods of reaching his audiences with his films are a reflection of him buckling under the seemingly overwhelming odds of the forces he is opposing, in other words, they have the power and we feel that. So his style is an expression of a kind of desperation. It is a question of him using the means of the powers that be to manipulate the public, of the ends justifying the means; but his ends are ultimately about, it seems, getting a democrat in the White House, as if that is going to change things.

Relevant links

Of course, the title of this documentary is a reference to the book Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

www.chomsky.info

  • Title: Manufacturing Dissent
  • Directed by: Rick Caine, Debbie Melnyk
  • Writing credits: Rick Caine, Debbie Melnyk
  • Starring: With many appearances, barely including Moore himself
  • Year: 2007 (5 October)