MICHAEL MOORE - "STUPID WHITE MEN" (PENGUIN)
When I sat down to read "Stupid White Men" I figured I'd read a couple of things that would acknowledge some of the things people have been saying about the largest and most powerful nation on earth. Some of the not-so-good things, obviously, things that you'd prefer not to hear because, after all, that particular nation has a profound influence on everything around you (from the way businesses work to the way your own country is defended).
"Stupid White Men" shows you that Baby Bush stole the election. What else could you call it if 150 of the 200 million voters in the US have not voted for him? It shows that the 'best' Republican president the US had in years is...Bill Clinton. It shows the plight of the African American. It shows how big companies (and the tobacco lobby, and the gun lobby) effectively run the US, and more or less run the world. This no easy read, even though the book is categorized as 'humour'. There's a lot of stuff to laugh about (the average stupidity of members of Congress and Yale graduates), but some of the stuff in there ought to make you cry out loud. "The land of the free?" Once, maybe.
And you know what I found most scary, almost petrifying? It was the list of sources at the end of his book, that once and for all tell you that this is not just good-natured jibing and cajoling. This is Real Shit and it's already hit The Fan. I sleep a whole lot less safer now.
Moore must be making shitloads of money or something, because otherwise I don't understand how he can still smile on the pictures on the front and back of "Stupid White Men". Some shit has come to light, and I am not sure whether I wanted that light switch flicked in the first place. The horrible thing, you see, is that I cannot do anything to change it. If the American voters couldn't, how the hell could I?
This is the most indigestible and at once most important bit of food for thought in a long while, maybe ever. Be prepared to be nauseated, shocked, and be made to feel very unsafe indeed.
They ought to let overly vocal Bush supporters such as Gene Simmons and Henry Rollins read this shit, and hope for them to get a chance to apologise in public for their redneck attitudes. The US bringing democracy to Iraq? Perhaps they should first become a truly democratic country themselves.
Released 2002, ISBN 0-141-01190-4 - Click here to buy or check out this book
RK
Written May 2003