Michael Moore - Discovering Society Also Eats The Heroes It Creates

I have come to the conclusion after watching and listening to Michael Moore on various television programs and interviews that for all of his success, what he most craves is to be accepted….by anyone or someone. He would like to be liked, to be picked for the team and to be admired for his intellect. How else can you explain his schizophrenic pandering to various diverse groups and his inconsistent approach to the issues?

It starts with the the ball cap and sweat shirts or t-shirts. Someone in his income bracket can afford to dress with a touch more finesse and we all know he has nicer clothes. He shows up at the glam events in suits, he just reserves his 'common man' look for the cameras at the events where it might seem a little awkward to acknowledge or flaunt his financial success. We’ve seen him in his tuxedo when he accepted his Academy Award. Dressing down is just part of the ‘common man’ image that Mr. Moore likes to portray. It appears that the performance is starting to overstay it's welcome in some quarters.

On Saturday, Michael Moore dropped by the OWS celebration of St. Patrick’s Day in his humble, 'I’m one of you guys’ outfits. He mingled. He signed autographs, managed to find a microphone or two into which to speak and just generally enjoyed the benefits of being a celebrity. I’m sure he felt the love he seeks or at least he did until the heckling started. Watch the video, have a chuckle and then we can chat some more.

video from YouTube

Once priding himself on being a Hollywood outsider, Michael Moore was so flushed with gratitude for receiving the Oscar that if the Academy had asked him to stay after the telecast to help sweep up, he would have gladly complied.

He is a man who can’t decide whether he wants to be a rebel or one of the gang, whatever that gang may be.

He produces documentaries that are biased, sometimes factually wrong as Sicko was in its claims about Canadian health care and who speaks out on social issues often with embarrassing results and a requirement to do some serious backtracking.

He has called middle class, middle aged Americans racists forgetting that many of those he criticized were at the vanguard of the 60s civil rights movement. They marched with Martin Luther King while Mr. Moore was still in school. He suggested that it was only the young people of today, many of whom are more interested in free tuition and have demonstrated a severe intolerance for various cultural and racial groups as being at the vanguard in defeating racism.

From the beginning, he jumped on the OWS bandwagon and was soon showing up at various rallies to condemn the 1% high income earners. He would spend an hour at each appearance to pontificate into the mike for the assembled rabble, sign some autographs and have a few pictures taken before retiring to his $1.5 million waterfront home.

Michael Moore's $1.5 million waterfront home

He was never quite able to see the hypocrisy between his words and his lifestyle although he gave it a valiant effort. He told Pierce Morgan, in response to the criticism about the dichotomy between his lifestyle and his criticism of the wealth of the 1% that the 1% was actually an attitude, not a measurement of wealth. He changed his criticism from wealth distribution to attitude distribution in an attempt to downplay his own membership in the 1% club.

You have to almost admire that attempt at tap dancing your way out of hypocrisy. Politicians do it all the time and are quite good at it but unfortunately Mr. Moore is no politician and he is better at hypocrisy than he is at explaining it away. He's like the big goofy kid we all knew in school who didn't fit in but was always hanging around trying to be cool and who would say almost anything to get accepted.

Mr. Moore lecturing the world at an Occupy event

It appears, however, that his search for acceptance  is wearing a tad thin and increasingly people are finding rants against wealth and privilege are a bit precious coming from someone worth more than $50 million.

Now he is being heckled at the same assemblies where he was once treated as a star. There were still many who welcomed him with the same reverence for celebrity that they reserve for any famous person but it was different this time and it appears that bloom is falling off the Moore rose.

I have no issue with Mr. Moore’s success, his wealth or even his political views. He’s entitled to them all. My issue, as always, is hypocrisy. I get tired of celebrities treating serious issues like trivial items on their daily agenda, dropping by to voice a poorly-formed opinion and then moving on for lunch at the latest trendy bistro or the next media interview.

We see it all the time. Celebrities who protest oil and gas exploration who are driven to the demonstration in their gas-guzzling SUVs or who show up for a photo op for the latest march against poverty and then whisk off back to the mansion for dinner with more of the rich and famous. Often, these celebrities come without much  knowledge of the issue or having made any real effort to get informed beyond a CNN news clip. It's all about the appearance of social relevance than an actual commitment to it.

It serves no useful purpose other than to muddy the water and make finding consensus and resolution of issues more challenging. Celebrities, like other leaders in academia, business, politics and the media have great privilege and influence. They have the right to both hold and voice their opinions but with their privileged lifestyle also comes great responsibility to be informed and not to misuse their celebrity for their own self-aggrandizement or other personal benefit.

The penalty is often a fall from grace in a society that eats its heroes almost as fast as it creates them. Mr. Moore, in his desperate search to be part of something, should remember that for the future.

RELATED POSTS

Criticizing The Society That Made You A Success
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/01/those-who-have-succeeded-have.html

Michael Moore On Video Calling Older Americans Racists
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/01/michael-moore-on-video-calling-older.html

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