Michael Moore: American exceptionalism is the death of us

[marmar]

TORONTO (AP) — "Mike's Happy Movie" was the working title of Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Where to Invade Next," but few would consider its examination of American ills — from runaway college tuition to mass incarceration — the stuff of bubbly, feel-good delight.

Yet "Where to Invade Next," in which Moore plunders foreign (mostly European) ideas like Italy's government-mandated vacation or Portugal's decriminalized drug use to bring back home to America, has an unmistakable whiff of hope.

Yes, Moore, that passionately voluble critic and left-wing icon, is feeling a wind at his back. Moore's first film in six years, he says, was partly inspired by change he's witnessed in recent years, from the Occupy Wall Street movement to the success of marriage equality.

In "Where to Invade Next," which Moore is currently shopping for distribution, he travels to various countries seeking smarter ways to educate, police and work. "Instead of sending in the Marines," he says in the film, "send in me."

.....(snip).....

AP: Your film suggests American chest-thumping has blurred its vision.

Moore: This concept of American exceptionalism is the death of us. We know personally it does none of us any good walking around going "Yeah! Yeah!" That's not the path to self-improvement. I mean, you can like yourself, and I do. I love the fact that I'm an American. I love this country. I love everything about what it means. But I also embrace the other side of it, and in doing so, it's incumbent upon me as a citizen to want to help fix it. .................(more)

http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/2015/09/12/michael-moore-american-exceptionalism-death-us/72142658/

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. "Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions." Arthur Schopenhauer

[Kath1]

2. Right on!

That is so true!

Patriotism has led to too much suffering.

[elzenmahn]

8. I would submit...

...that the way America currently defines "patriotism" isn't really patriotism at all, but belligerent nationalism.

When people are whipped into a "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant, wear the flag as a shirt, dress, or bandana, and give speeches that touch on all of the emotional hot-buttons of the culture without acknowledging the TRUTH of American life, that's not "patriotism".

True patriotism requires a vision of a better nation, and the courage to act on that vision knowing of the potential consequences. Personally, I believe that the actions of the Occupy protesters, the Black Lives Matter protesters, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein, and others that are too numerous to mention here, can be considered patriotic. Those on the other end of the political spectrum will inevitably lists others as "patriots". Where we need to be careful, however, is in how politically and socially loaded the word "patriot" is, and how it's used to benefit one side or the other. The word is very useful to propagandists.

[Kath1]

10. Very well-said.

Thank you. Food for thought and very true.

[hifiguy]

3. +1000

Truer words, etc, etc.

[SoapBox]

9. OMG!

So true.

[Martin Eden]

12. The fools don't know what real patriotism is

If you truly love your country you have to acknowledge its faults and work hard to correct them.

We also have to understand the long term well being of our country is inextricably tied to the long term well being of the other nations and peoples on this earth we all share. A zero-sum game in which we gain short term benefits while inflicting misery on others is a losing game, period.

[Hortensis]

4. And religionationalist American Exceptionalism is even worse.

[moondust]

5. Exceptional.

IOKIYA

[whatchamacallit]

6. Can't wait to see it

[alfredo]

7. Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind

Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind
Carl Sandburg, 1878 - 1967

The past is a bucket of ashes.

1

The woman named Tomorrow
sits with a hairpin in her teeth
and takes her time
and does her hair the way she wants it
and fastens at last the last braid and coil
and puts the hairpin where it belongs
and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?
My grandmother, Yesterday, is gone.
What of it? Let the dead be dead.


2

The doors were cedar
and the panels strips of gold
and the girls were golden girls
and the panels read and the girls chanted:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The doors are twisted on broken hinges.
Sheets of rain swish through on the wind
where the golden girls ran and the panels read:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.


3

It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened
… and the only listeners left now
… are … the rats … and the lizards.

And there are black crows
crying, “Caw, caw,"
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,"
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.


4

The feet of the rats
scribble on the door sills;
the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints
chatter the pedigrees of the rats
and babble of the blood
and gabble of the breed
of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers
of the rats.

And the wind shifts
and the dust on a door sill shifts
and even the writing of the rat footprints
tells us nothing, nothing at all
about the greatest city, the greatest nation
where the strong men listened
and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was.

**This poem is in the public domain.**

[daleanime]

11. K&R.....

[demmiblue]

14. K&R