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Movie Takes
Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore appears to be missing out on life.
There is one scene in Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story where its writer, director, hero and sole credited actor is examining the copy of the Constitution that is on display in the National Archives. He asks a guard — this is the kind of thing Mr. Moore routinely does for effect, pretending he doesn’t know that the guards are not constitutional experts — where in the document before him there is any mention of free markets, free enterprise or capitalism. He can’t seem to find those words. Could it be that they’re not there? And, if they’re not, does that mean that they’re not constitutionally protected? Not, of course, that one could imagine its mattering to him if they were. But without a specific mention, presumably, we must suppose that these “evil” things — he has the testimony of two lefty priests and a bishop to that effect — must have been snuck into America’s constitutional arrangements at a later date by, well, capitalists — or other, equally unscrupulous sorts.
In fact, he makes an interesting point, if he but knew it. For the reason “capitalism” is not in the U.S. Constitution is that no one at the time of the American founding had ever heard of any such thing. Private property, of course, they knew about, and there is quite a lot about that in the Constitution — especially about protecting it from government predation. But capitalism? No, sorry. Doesn’t ring any bells. How could it? The term was a later invention of socialists like Mr. Moore, themselves a new thing beneath the heavens, seeking to ideologize the world as they found it. The point was to represent reality itself as nothing but a less attractive rival to a suppositious unreality that they called socialism. If once people accepted that this nasty sounding “capitalism,” carrying with it all the sorrows and disappointments of real life, were on all fours with the much nicer-sounding “socialism,” its historical charge sheet at that point quite blank, they might begin to get the idea that this illusory mental construct was an intellectually legitimate alternative reality.
It’s not. If we’ve learned anything from a century in which the record of economic failure of governments calling themselves “socialist” is exceeded only by the hundred million-odd souls numbered in their necrology we’ve learned that much. “Capitalism” is just the socialist word for life — life in its natural state, life untrammeled by regulations imposed by bureaucratic rent-seekers, life that, even under socialism, goes on in the form of more or less tolerated black markets. Yet, amazingly, we remain still so oblivious to this act of lefty legerdemain that conservatives continue to invite Mr. Moore to pin on them all the sufferings of the economically deprived or imprudent by proudly calling themselves “capitalists.” Don’t we know that capitalists are the people who cozen people out of their homes by making loans to them that they can’t afford to repay? This is just one of the many sins that Mr. Moore attributes to these mythical monsters, the diabolically clever exponents of a “system” designed to make a few people rich and the mass of people poor. For him, “capitalism” is an evil force with supernatural powers, and the pantomime theomachy between this “capitalism” and Mooreism, which is fitfully and inconsistently identified with “socialism,” here finds a new lease of life.
Or at least it seeks one. Whether or not any significant number of people are going to take Mr. Moore’s movie as anything but the joke he, in effect, admits it is remains to be seen. For it seems to me that even the most convinced socialists will be hard put to it to find any coherence in this random selection of crooked or rapacious business practices, first person accounts of the sufferings of those who have borrowed imprudently and had to pay the price, moralizing about labor markets that pay what he regards as too little to some and too much to others and sneering about the politicians whose 2008 bailout of the financial markets he calls “a financial coup d’état.” It’s clear enough what Michael Moore is against, which is poverty and suffering and shady dealing. It’s also pretty clear that he thinks those who don’t agree with him about what to do about these things actually like them and want there to be more of them. Not so clear is the chain of reasoning by which he arrives at such an extraordinary conclusion, and not clear at all is how, in practice, the non-capitalist alternative he proposes (he is oddly shy about using the word “socialist”) would work.
Argument, in other words, is not Mr. Moore’s strong suit, as those who have sat through his previous films — Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko and so forth — may be aware. Like those pictures, Capitalism: A Love Story is a melodrama, and like all good melodramas it has not only an impossibly wicked villain but an impossibly good hero. And if the villain is the spectral capitalist, the hero has an embodied existence in the shape of Franklin D. Roosevelt who, we are told, had planned to pass into law a “Second Bill of Rights” which would by legislative fiat have made everyone healthy, wealthy and educated, if he had but lived long enough to do it. Alas, he died only just over a year after announcing this revolutionary idea and presumably had other things to do during that year. In Mr. Moore’s words, “none of this came to pass. Instead, we became this” — and so we cut from the old newsreel of FDR to color news footage of the Katrina disaster. It’s that darned capitalism again!
Wherever you find human misery, there it will be, apparently. Capitalism makes the winds to blow and the waters to rise, and only an act of government can stop it! “We all deserve FDR’s dream, and it’s a crime that we don’t have it,” says Mr. Moore’s peroration. Does anybody really believe anything so preposterous? You wouldn’t think so, but our political debate is now so debased that lots of people apparently do. At least a lot of the people who go to movies. A bunch of them applauded at the end on the night I saw it. They presumably believed him when he said that “Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it.” Well, if people are suckers enough to believe that all the world’s problems are caused by a few “evil” capitalists, then they will also be sucker enough to believe that the problems can be put to rights by passing laws against capitalism. The question is, does Michael Moore believe it, or is he just playing with us?
I wonder if he knows himself.
Consider, his sub-title: “A Love Story.” In a way it is, too. Mr. Moore suffuses stories from his own childhood in Flint, Michigan, with a nostalgic glow. His father had a good job in a General Motors spark plug factory, made a good living and raised an apparently happy family. Dad had four weeks’ summer vacation every year and a new car every three years. Little Michael even treasures fond memories of the nuns at his parochial school. Those were the good old days, and if the motor industry, along with Flint, has fallen on hard times, it has to be somebody’s fault. That’s what capitalism was invented for. F. A. Hayek thought that socialism was a species of nostalgia for an imagined past, and this movie seems to bear him out. Its best moment comes during one of Mr. Moore’s stunts where he’s asking random people on Wall Street if they can explain credit default swaps to him. “Can you give me any advice?” he cries.
One of the passers by says to him, “Yeah. Don’t make any more movies.”
All credit to him for leaving that in the final cut. Now he should take the advice.
About the Author
James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (59) | Leave a comment
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Northern Rebel| 10.6.09 @ 7:16AM
Michael Moore is a genius! To profit from that which you criticize:
BRILLIANT!
Appleby| 10.6.09 @ 7:41AM
Michael Moore is getting old and his health is failing. That is what his movie says loudly and clearly.
He has suddenly reached that time in life when he realizes he is mortal, that life as he thinks he remembers it -- when he had no responsibility for its outcome and Mama and Daddy did all his thinking -- was far better than this constant struggle to think for himself and bear the burden of decisions that went wrong (such as gaining 100+ lbs. stuffing himself on bonbons while people in his home town could use that moneyhe sees as blubber in the mirror every morning to buy healthy food for their children) and the overwhelming guilt that is overtaking him for becoming the thing he professes to hate ...
Michael Moore is realizing that more of his life is behind him than ahead of him, and that in order to become the man he planned to be, he is going to have to change his ways substantially and that secretly he likes things the way they are.
In short, Michael Moores movie is a giant projection of the view from the WHAAAAAmbulance.
Old age is a b***h, Michael. Get used to it.
Bram| 10.6.09 @ 8:02AM
It's a shame that the guard didn't refer him to the 10th Amendment. Capitalism is economic freedom - limited government is freedom.
Alan Brooks| 10.6.09 @ 5:27PM
The guard may have been a victim of a public ed system that teaches Heather Has Two Mommies, but not the Constitution.
Pingback| 10.6.09 @ 8:13AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Capitalism: A Love Story [spectator. links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Robert Rosencrans| 10.6.09 @ 8:25AM
Michael Moore is the quintessential liberal, criticizing capitalism while filling up their bank accounts as fast as possible.
Anthony| 10.6.09 @ 9:34AM
Hey Michael, we know you're reading this, there's no specific clause in the Constitution that says fat, obnoxious leftist hypocrite slobs are protected from criticism either, so here goes you blovlating contemptible bastard.
Children are starving in Africa; might you donate what small profits this pathetic piece of propaganda will generate to them? Or perhaps, a more substancial donation; your weekly food bill. And how many carbon credits will you need to purchase from Algore as you jet around the world selling this piece of crap?
Jim Hlavac| 10.6.09 @ 10:28AM
Karl Marx invented, more or less, the word "capitalism" to describe all that was evil and bad and horrible within the mercantilist, royalist, landed aristocracy of 1840s England -- and then spent 800 or so mush filled turgid prose to describe its horrors in Das Kapital -- so if that's what Capitalism is, then we don't have it (even KM said we weren't capitalist in his letters to Engels) -- what we have (had) is free market entrepreneurialism -- which doesn't fit well on bumper stickers, and that ent... is an awfully hard word to spell, even to say. On the other hand, "socialism" was, more or less, coined by Charles Fourier who called for the seas to be of lemonade. So lets let the lefties have the "capitalist" word, and join them in the fight against royalist, landed aristocracy, which is sort of like what the modern Left wingers today want to be. (you know, like, take land from the small tax payers and give it to the rich tax payers who are politician's friends -- a la Kelo)
Vern Crisler| 10.6.09 @ 11:51AM
Dittos! Excellent points!
KyMouse| 10.7.09 @ 11:48AM
If I remember correctly, it never occurred to Marx that workers in a capitalist society could be free to purchase stock in companies, and (in the long run) profit from them (and if they owned enough stock, have a big say in the company's doin's). That simple fact could have saved him a lot of mush-filled, turgid prose.
"Oh....never mind." -- Karl Marx
D. Hussein Geffen | 10.6.09 @ 10:43AM
I wonder if the darling of the Hollywood Left supports wage controls for agents, studio heads, producers, plastic surgeons and botox clinics?
Shamus| 10.6.09 @ 10:44AM
Moore is so obese that he can barely tie his shoes. This would be bound to damage your quality of life.
Richard| 10.6.09 @ 11:20AM
Count me in with those so-called "two lefty priests and a bishop" because they reflect Catholic social teaching at its best. Unbridled capitalism is indeed an evil and a scourge to the millions of the "huddled masses" it exploits. Capitalism is the religion of Cain: "I am not my brother's keeper."
appleby| 10.6.09 @ 11:32AM
God judged Cain as an individual in that matter; even so does Jesus in Matthew 25 when he uses the word YOU in the second person singular, not plural, to condemn such as Michael Moore for not individually spending his own time, talent and treasure in being his brother's keepr.
In other words, God does not condemn the whole society because some of its members are pigs.
victor| 10.6.09 @ 7:40PM
"God does not condemn the whole society because some of its members are pigs.''
You're certainly forgetting that God destroyed the earth and saved Noah and his family. Gen. 6:13
And how God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and let Lot and his family escape. Gen. 19:24
And how God will destroy the Earth and only save those who believe in Jesus. 2 Pet. 3:10.
kevin| 10.7.09 @ 2:31PM
The whole society was condemned because they were pigs, the ones that weren't pigs were spared. (Noah and his family).
Anti-Moore-on| 10.6.09 @ 3:17PM
Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow me."
At this the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."
--Mark 10:21-25
Yea, how hard it is for a rich man who hates other rich men to get into Heaven... possibly because he's too fat to fit through the pearly gates! A camel through the eye of a needle indeed!
May all limousine leftists join this Satanic film-maker Moore in what is likely to be his infernal fate: being boiled in his own lard for all eternity while the worms chew his guts.
KyMouse| 10.7.09 @ 11:55AM
Richard, capitalism provides millions of jobs for people, many (perhaps most) of whom then share their earnings with the poor -- voluntarily and generously. I certainly do, and I hope that you do too.
I'd be more impressed by "Catholic social teaching" if the Vatican sold off its vast art collection and gave the money to the poor. Some years ago, I saw a traveling exhibit in New York entitled "Treasures of the Vatican." Quite a collection of valuable objects! The irony of that, in light of Matthew 6:19, remains with me to this day.
Yosemeti Sam| 10.6.09 @ 11:44AM
Anyone know what this anti-capitalist is
worth? Is he a rich poor-man or a poor
rich-man?
Red32| 10.6.09 @ 12:25PM
Does anybody really take this serious? This guy is an entertainer, comedian and this is his usual stick, a "Mockumentary". A good laugh yes, serious in any way NO. The unfortunate thing is that some people really believe this garbage. How sad that the dumbing of America comes in doses of crap like this and we the poeple buy in to it.
Oh how I long for the days of common sense. Speaking of Capitalism I wonder how much capital Michael is makng from this one? He seems to eat well but does need the Queer Eye Guys to clean up his ugly unkept apperance. Maybe that is why we really can't take me serious.... He always looks like a clown! Enough said.
Jeremiah| 10.6.09 @ 12:31PM
How can this guy claim to be so interested in the truth whereas he has not seen his d.ick for the last 20 years?
Anthony| 10.6.09 @ 3:45PM
Under Obama care, it will just wither on the vine.
S.L. Toddard| 10.6.09 @ 1:44PM
More preaching to the choir. Instead of lampooning liberals - which, in a venue that caters exclusively to Republicans is at best redundant - AmSpec would serve Conservatism better by criticizing the GOP in an effort to push it in a more conservative direction. Pieces like this are, in my opinion, a waste of time. It's not like there is any significant portion of the right that needs to be straightened out vis a vis Michael Moore.
Alan Brooks| 10.6.09 @ 5:32PM
Not you again. you are so thick.
"It's not like there is any significant portion of the right that needs to be straightened out vis a vis Michael Moore"
Todd, this is an ENTERTAINMENT piece, by James Bowman, not a polemic by Anne Coulter.
Todd, not all of us are Repuglicans. I voted Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004 just to protest Bush.
Alan Brooks| 10.6.09 @ 5:36PM
Toddlard,
there are all sorts at Amspec, incl. Reagan Independnts, just as there are Reagan Democrats. Bush did more to destroy conservatism than anyone since Carter.
Alan Brooks| 10.6.09 @ 5:46PM
Being so humorless, you couldn't quite get it that Bowman's piece on Michael Moore was mostly to entertain.
Alan Brooks| 10.6.09 @ 9:38PM
blockhead Toddard can't get the distinction between a
film review and a straight political piece.
Cats| 10.7.09 @ 3:28PM
Yes, I agree. Am Spec ought to be criticizing the GOP in an effort to push it in a more conservative direction. It ought to do that by singing the praises of true conservatives such as Sarah Palin, instead of ignoring her. Guess they want to lose another election, don't they?
Vector| 10.6.09 @ 2:51PM
The Wealth of Nations had just been written which really defined capitalism. Like Fire, it was discovered, not invented. It also lays out how it is THE MOST EFFICENCT and FAIR system on earth. Too bad the Guard didn't ask him to find the right to an Abortion. He wouldn't have found that either.
Curtis Rasmussen| 10.6.09 @ 3:15PM
The populace is getting wise to this bozo. His movie is tanking, hard.
http://bighollywood.breitbart......ox-office/
Louis Jenkins| 10.6.09 @ 4:27PM
Getting wise? Sir, I recognized him a long time ago for what he is. A pompous, bloviated, sack of excrement who's main interest is making a buck and a name for himself on the backs of the Soros gang and the limp wristed Hollyweed liberals. Anyone who thinks that movie making is something of lasting importance needs to smell the coffee. It's nothing but make-believe. Has one movie ever changed the course of human events? (Well, except maybe some of "The Duke's" movies. ) I dare say most of us recognized Moore's cut of cloth a long time ago!!
jim| 10.21.09 @ 4:36PM
Tanking can't hurt this"Only I can make a living, not you" liberal too much, his movies only cost a $1.98 to make so anything above that is profit..... Ohmy god, that's capitalism isn't it.....
Pingback| 10.6.09 @ 3:19PM
Photomaniacal » Blog Archive » Film Review- Capitalism: A Love Story links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Nathan| 10.6.09 @ 4:27PM
Oh Michael, you silly goose. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system in the history of the earth. Oil-rich Venezuela should be a people's paradise given Michael Moore's viewpoint. Trouble is that when Chavez imposed his lefty sociailist ideals on the country living standards began to drop and drop fast. No thanks, I'd rather live in a free-market based society than a socialist one.
Clay Barham | 10.6.09 @ 4:31PM
First off, quit calling it capitalism, as that is a term Marx used to describe European mercantilism. Ours is a free market rising from the actions of individual freedom that began when the Pilgrims established Christianity into America, the New World, as described in THE CHANGING FACE OF DEMOCRATS (Amazon.com) and www.claysamerica.com
Richard Baker| 10.6.09 @ 7:09PM
This refugee from a bathtub has a nitwit niche market that is crazier than he is. Without capitalism this joker would be sweeping streets or sleeping under a bridge. What a fool.
Christopher Holland| 10.7.09 @ 2:15AM
So Michael Moore is so smart and so smug, when he wants to know about the constitution, he asks a guard. Who is this moron going to consult when he needs major surgery to protect his health - is he going to ask a taxi driver and then make a movie complaining about the poor quality of health care? Moore is a conceited fool who doesn't understand what he critercises, he simply likes the sound of his own voice.
Pingback| 10.7.09 @ 7:57AM
All In One Information » The American Spectator : Capitalism: A Love Story links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 10.7.09 @ 8:29AM
Holland:
Agreed. The public mental masturbation of this guy is truly breathtaking.
Todd| 10.8.09 @ 2:17AM
True capitalism is anarchy because there would be no regulations or oversite. And any form of government involvement, including regulations for businesses, is socialism.
Todd| 10.8.09 @ 2:19AM
@victor...This God you refer to sounds like a violent egomaniac.
Lagius Meatius| 10.20.09 @ 1:21PM
I find it hilarious that people who are supposedly Pro-Capitalist (forget the Marxist definition--lets not get into semantics here)...leading banks on Wall Street, asking for a social welfare handout "The Bailout"...begging for a socialist welfare handout, which by definition means they succombed to a socialist "solution/direction"...ironic isn't it? Capitalism is not equal opportunity, nor is it what the public has been taught it to be. It provides a profit incentive, which by those that are overcome with greed (most top exec's)--have the power to exploit the proletariot, thereby showing no altruism or sympathy for the common man. I'm sorry but the number of prisoners in this country has gotten out of hand because of capitalism (basically our current economic platform), the collapse seen in this economy is extremely attributed to the financial de-regulation that has occured. People are making a profit off of other people's misfortunes--regardless of how they came to be...this country (mostly the common man) is supposed to be proud to serve the common man, with the hope of making a prosperous living. Prosperous does not mean being exceedingly wealthy at the expense of creating destitution. There is a difference between what is fair or legal on paper, and what is ethical and in the best interests of the entire nation. I hope one day people are closer to a $250K salary cap, and re-locate the true meaning of brotherhood, that which is most important in life, and loving your neighbor. We as a nation can not be directly compared to other countries if we are to adopt a socialist way of life. We are not able to say "Look at how things are here", whilst looking at only the negatives. This country is supposed to be power to the people, all the people, not only to the wealthy Burgeoise...money is the root of all evil (look that up in the bible if you must use this book as inspiration for your beliefs). As long as there is even a possibililty of a substantial portion of the country's money held in only a few hands, there will always be corruption far greater than in any other circumstance...If people must, listen to the words of Jesus, forget Michael Moore, and live your life with an immaterialistic motive. If people did this, there wouldn't be a need for as much crime, stealing, pain and suffering that we see day to day in this country. Give me your sick, your tired, and your poor...lets realize that many of us are sick, and tired, and poor. With an established country/nation /union that is only 230 years old, we have deviated from our forefather's intended course--its never too late to change things..Peace to all of you!
Pingback| 11.4.09 @ 1:37PM
Capitalism: A Love Story | OrthodoxNet.com Blog | Blog Archive links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.9.10 @ 10:59AM
March 09 2010 « Oh For Crying Out Loud… links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
poptropica| 4.9.10 @ 11:06PM
I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You Poptropica
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale poptropica
You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. poptropica
When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. poptropica
I’ll have a full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!poptropica
Getting Hercules to Help You
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. poptropica
Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you.poptropica
. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale
You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out.Poptropica When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. poptropica