Working Class Hero

 (The following is an excerpt from an essay I wrote in 2009 after Michael Moore released his documentary titled “Capitalism: A Love Story.”)

***
It’s a pretty big stretch to try and take on capitalism in an era when the alternative methods of organizing an economy have been so thoroughly discredited. But Michael Moore has never been one to avoid stretch goals ever since I first got to know him as an underground newspaper editor in our mutual homeland of Flint, Michigan.

Okay, so Flint wasn’t exactly my homeland, though my parents did live and work there after I left home, plus I grew up, first down the road a ways, and then, up the road a ways, in very similar environments to Flint’s all during my formative years.

My family included autoworkers just as his did. Only difference: Mine were first-gen immigrants.

I liked Michael from the first because of his spirit. I’d already heard of the controversy he’d been causing back home, and it resonated with me due to my own past efforts trying to forge coalitions in the 1960s between antiwar and civil rights activists on campus with striking autoworkers in and around Detroit.

Later, during a more problematic period for Michael, when he was trying to live and work out here in San Francisco, I tried to help him manage the cultural transition from the Midwest to the Left Coast. 

That one didn’t work out so well. And, in my view, he drew all of the wrong conclusions as a result.

Then, as a fellow journalist, I also couldn’t help but notice certain methodological flaws in his work. Over the years, as his career as the most successful documentary film maker in history has progressed, I sometimes took issue with his work.

He cut corners I wouldn’t cut, edited in ways I’m not sure were ethical, and fell back on more of a propaganda-type style than I could ever feel comfortable with, among other things.

But that’s the micro-version of how I view his work. On the macro-level, I respect him deeply. We share a lot of common values, and his last two documentaries, “Sicko” and this new one, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” have re-opened my eyes to the true brilliance of the man. His art of connecting with working people is truly inspiring.

This new film has an additional component: It is moving. What has happened to ordinary people in our time is criminal. There have not been many willing to stand up for the common person, but Michael Moore is one of them.

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