Re: [Marxism] Michael Moore decline continues

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ian Pace wrote:
>
> I'll read that article later; however, I can't see how a blanket
> denunciation of "the left", as Michael Moore puts it, can be anything other
> than sectarian? He's the one who doesn't seem to want to deal with argument
> and persuasion, just trying to make cheap capital from denouncing those who
> are most likely to share his critiques (even if thinking they don't go far
> enough). Doesn't he want to make some common cause with us?
>

Blanket criticisms of "The Left" are worse than sectarian -- they are
mere slime, for the simple reason that "The Left" as a coherent entity
to which epithets (positive or negative) can be applied does not exist
nor has it existed for several decades. Moore's Nation essay was not in
any sense criticism, since criticism has to have an object, and no
object for his criticism actually existed. Such pseudo-criticism of
non-existent objects is merely a way in which the critic can puff up
his/her own ego, looking down his/her nose at the struggling fools out
there who are actually trying to do something.

Moore's films pose a different question. They are (probably) useful, but
that isn't so self-evident. The audiences of such films, like the
readers of the Nation, tend to react by saying to themselves, "Oh, isn't
that terrible. Someone ought to do something about it."

Carrol


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