YELLOW CHICKEN
(and then there's some guy
in a mascot costume, too)
Posted on 01/07/2003 6:35:29 PM PST by Leisler
I've long loathed Michael Moore's politics, but I've always cut him some slack (believe it or not). I've defended him in the press, in that Wired article for which I was interviewed. I've refrained from gratuitous name-calling (with one exception which I later retracted) and I've made it a point to read the entirety of his writings and to give him credit when he's right.
Those days are over, not because I no longer believe in those methods but because I no longer feel Moore deserves their application. I now realize that he is a very interesting psychological case study.
First we had this yesterday:
American satirist Michael Moore has stormed out of Britain after a bust up with the London theatre hosting his one-man show. The Bowling For Columbine moviemaker performed Michael Moore - Live! to packed audiences for two months before Christmas at The Roundhouse in Camden, North London. But on the penultimate night he reportedly flew into a rage, verbally attacking everyone associated with the theatre because he thought he wasn't being paid enough. During the performance he complained he was making just $750 a night. A member of the stage crew says, "He completely lost the plot. He stormed around all day screaming at everyone, even the £5-an-hour bar staff, telling them how we were all conmen and useless. Then he went on stage and did it in public." Staff retaliated by refusing to work the following night, which led to the show being held up for an hour. Eventually he made a groveling apology to staff and the angry audience finally took to their seats. A source reports that Moore then packed his bags and flew to New York the next day without saying thank you or goodbye to anyone.
This, from a man who claims to be "regular folk" and who identifies with "working stiffs."
Primary diagnosis: Cognitive dissonance
Being an intelligent man, Moore knows deep down that he is full of shit. On some level, he's aware of the hypocrisy and manipulation that he engages in on a daily basis. Claiming to represent "working stiffs" while being a famous multimillionaire is becoming problematic, and as his psyche tries to reconcile these two states of being, he lashes out at the people who actually embody what his public persona is supposed to represent.
His subconscious wants to 'destroy' the real working stiffs, so as to mitigate the constant influx of information about what it means to be a real working stiff.
It may also be possible that in attacking genuine "regular folk," Moore is merely demonstrating that he truly believes he is one of them, in the same way that only another member of an "oppressed" group is allowed by society to insult other members of that group.
In any case, the dissonance between what Moore knows to be true and what he so desperately tries to convince other people is true has become a psychological burden for him, and he is beginning to crumble under the pressure.
Secondary diagnosis: Pompousassity
He just can't help it.
And then this, today (emphasis mine):
I took my son to see Michael Moore live at the Roundhouse, in north London, before Christmas...Sure there were some flunked bits – you expect that, the troughs are part of the adventure, an evening with a well-worn rebel.
What we did not expect was to feel so enraged at one point that we almost walked out. It was when Moore went into a rant about how the passengers on the planes on 11 September were scaredy-cats because they were mostly white. If the passengers had included black men, he claimed, those killers, with their puny bodies and unimpressive small knives, would have been crushed by the dudes, who as we all know take no disrespect from anybody. God save us from such stupid white men, especially now, when in the US and the UK, black people's lives are being ripped to shreds by drugs, lawlessness, fear and frightful violence plus the endless circle of racism, exclusion and incarceration.
Ah-hem. Ah-HEM. Yes, this may simply have been a joke in extremely bad taste...but maybe not. Does it matter?
Primary diagnosis: Projection
Moore is a self-proclaimed overweight nerd. Therefore, he knows that if he were confronted with a challenge such as being on a hijacked plane, he would be a "scaredy-cat" and would be unable to fight back in any meaningful way. But, rather than admit this to himself or anyone else, he attributes these feelings and qualities to others.
This projection not only comforts Moore by convincing him that he's not unusual or less manly than anyone else, it also gives him an opportunity to talk about Stupid White Men, which is important because he has books to sell.
Secondary diagnosis #1: Black envy
To Moore (as to many others), black people are cool. Black men, in particular, are natural warriors and bad-asses in Moore's mind. Their Afro-fabulousness is apparent on the football field and in popular culture. They will whup that ass, basically.
On the other hand, Moore sees a problem with white men. The only white men you see whupping much ass have guns. This poses a severe psychological conundrum for an individual like Moore because, remember, guns are baaaad. So a Dirty Harry figure can't be the hero.
The hero must be the unarmed yet naturally tough black man, in Moore's mind. I'll refrain from discussing the homoerotic undertones of this.
Also, the black-man-as-noble-hero image is safe and desirable. It appeals to white guilt and fits right in with contemporary pop culture. We love watching a Denzel Washington shoot poison arrows with his eyes and put the smack-down on the antagonist with an eloquent speech. We love our black sports hero-millionaires, and we enjoy knowing that they overcame hardship and oppression to achieve their lofty status. Our culture adores this sort of thing because it means we've changed.
Moore is tapping into that cultural state of mind and attempting to exploit it. He supposes that a rant about how bad-assed black men are, in contrast to white super-wusses, will appeal to our current instinct to vilify Whitey and elevate "minorities."
Furthermore, it's really the only option Moore has. His paradigm does not allow for white heroics, unless those heroics are performed by extremely poor or extremely liberal white people, preferably female. He has a best-seller called Stupid White Men. That's his schtick and he's stickin' to it, except now he has added Wimpy to the adjective list.
Secondary diagnosis #2: Blame the Victim Syndrome
In a mind as saturated with modern "liberal" dogma as Moore's, it is imperative to always find a way to place at least part of the blame for any tragedy upon the victim. To him, no event is allowed to be colored in anything but pallid shades of gray.
Just as he blames Columbine on suburbs, conformity, and gun shows, Moore must use the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to somehow criticize the "establishment," which is White Men (stupid and wimpy white men, to be concise). At the same time, he strives to be original and provocative, and is aware that all the obvious targets have already been addressed - the federal government, President Bush, the airlines, et cetera.
Therefore, in the midst of a feverish bout of Blame the Victim Syndrome coupled with a desire to be "different," Moore has found his holy grail: Blame the deaths of 3,000 innocent people on the whiteness of the airplane passengers.
In the paradigm Moore has crafted for himself, this is the perfect solution - it lets the perpetrators off the hook (liberal handbook item #8, check), holds the Black Man up as Heroic Bad Ass (political correctness handbook item #4, check), and lays the blame for the atrocity at the feet of Stupid White Men (Michael Moore best-seller thesis, check).
Furthermore, it's bullet-proof, so to speak. Moore knows that if and when Whitey stands up to defend himself against such a ridiculous statement, the politically correct crowd (leftists) will scream, "Racist!" Remember, white people are not allowed to defend themselves against statements that simultaneously shred Whitey and praise black people, and Moore knows this.
Moore also likes this, because it helps him sell millions of copies of his book, Stupid White Men.
As you can see, what we have here is a deeply troubled man whose personal reality may not gel with actual reality, but nonetheless has a perfectly reasonable explanation. Pompousassity coexisting with the projection of a feeling of helplessness onto others. A deeply held yet erroneous belief conflicting with hard sensory input from the manifestion of that belief. Black envy wrapped up with the hate of one's own race. Et cetera, et cetera.
Treatment Plan: Prolonged intravenous infusions of Clue™.
Big mistake.
Probably a good thing in the long run, but it would have some entertainment value. There are very few people who are actually beneath my contempt, but Michael Moore has finally managed to join that short list. He is a truly pathetic individual whose enablers should be embarrassed, if they are not already flat-out ashamed.
The title should be, "Michael Moore: A psychological disaster". His remarks about the men on those planes are beyond reprehensible.
"Ooooh . . . 'pompousassity'. . . ."
I watched King of the Hill Sunday night where Peggy Hill and Dale Gribble were running a combination bookstore/gun shop. For those of you who missed it, Dale, Cotton Hill, and some other guys shot up Shakespeare's works and A Farewell to Arms down in the basement for target practice.
Michael Moron's "works" deserve no better a fate.
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