re: Mike

[James Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Doug writes: >This was the substance of Cockburn's critique. Moore
essentially takes the
mainstream caricature of w.c. life - a bunch of subliterates who belch and
fart in front of the TV - as accurate. In that, he seems to have in common
with our old friend Bob Malecki. The guy is immensely talented, but as
Cockburn also says, he takes a patronizing, Lettermanesque view of much of
humanity.<

To some extent, Moore's Lettermanesque view of the working class reflects
the class that he came from (Flint, etc.) To some extent, I think, it
represents a deliberate overstatement on Moore's part (something Cockburn
should appreciate, since he does it too, in different ways): he's pushing
white middle-class liberals and leftists (who, generally speaking, are the
ones who read the NATION) to care about connecting with and supporting not
only racial minorities (and gays, battered women, etc.) but also the
"ethnics" and "rednecks" in the working class. He's trying to shake the
libs and lefts out of their complacency and group self-isolation.

It's cartoonish, but cartoons are what pundits are made of. MM has been
pretty successful at his fun kind of punditry. TV NATION, which was
amazingly successful at drawing in large numbers of belchers and farters.
(It's one of the few truly left-wing TV shows in the history of TV.) His
book DOWNSIZE THIS! is in the same vein -- and seems to sell very well. (I
recently got to read it, since it's finally out in paperback.) It says
something about the power of a good sense of humor.


in pen-l solidarity,

Jim Devine   jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://clawww.lmu.edu/1997F/ECON/jdevine.html
"It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.