Tepid Sense of an Intrepid Destiny

Friday, July 02, 2004

True

In a great article on "Fahrenheit 9/11," Paul Krugman from the New York Times explained that, despite the inherent flaws in the movie, the overall point is what matters: The fake everyman persona of George W. Bush is a facade in order to garner support from the heartland and lower-income demographics. In fact, Bush has lived a life of privilege at the expense of those lesser off. He's intentionally misled the public in order to proceed with his own agenda, which is strikingly different from what is purported and what is the rest of the public's.

Krugman says:

And for all its flaws, "Fahrenheit 9/11" performs an essential service. It would be a better movie if it didn't promote a few unproven conspiracy theories, but those theories aren't the reason why millions of people who aren't die-hard Bush-haters are flocking to see it. These people see the film to learn true stories they should have heard elsewhere, but didn't. Mr. Moore may not be considered respectable, but his film is a hit because the respectable media haven't been doing their job.

For example, audiences are shocked by the now-famous seven minutes, when George Bush knew the nation was under attack but continued reading "My Pet Goat" with a group of children. Nobody had told them that the tales of Mr. Bush's decisiveness and bravery on that day were pure fiction...

Fahrenheit 9/11" is a tendentious, flawed movie, but it tells essential truths about leaders who exploited a national tragedy for political gain, and the ordinary Americans who paid the price.


Despite the fact that everything in this movie was common knowledge to many who keep up to date and get their news from independant sources and not FOX News, it was still refreshing to see. (Speaking of Fox News... I saw Al Sharpton on The O'Reilly Factor last night and he was terrific (Sharpton, not O'Reilly).) I am glad that this movie is doing so well and can only guess it will break more records, too bad 'Spiderman 2' comes out this weekend.

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