Lying To Make Friends

I saw Capitalism: A Love Story last night, and highly recommend that everyone else do the same. I want to keep this post short, but some of the better reviews can be found here and here. The reason I want to keep this short is because the power of Moore’s films lies in the simplicity of their messages. When he releases a new film, the common reaction is to scrutinize every claim, and focus on the areas where he can be accused of exaggerating or not telling the whole story. But Moore’s strength is that he gets the big picture right, and presents truths that others are too cowardly, too polite, or too corrupt to talk about. The central truth behind Capitalism is that there are evil people in this country, people who have more money than anyone could have ever need but choose to inflict suffering on others so they can make a couple (or 100) million dollars more. And we have an economic system that encourages this type of behavior, and a political system too corrupted to do anything about it. There’s plenty of room for debate about what should be done and the merits of capitalism versus alternatives, but the stories Moore presents make that central truth undeniable.

-AR