Unfortunately one of DN's eager journalists, Hanne Kjöller, has seen Michael Moore's new movie. Its called "Capitalism: A Love Story". I have not seen the movie, but my expectation would be that Moore does his thing with looking at some of the not-so-pleasant sides of the American society and culture, while trying to do it with some humour. Having seen the previous ones, I dont think there would be that many surprises for me. Anyway, a lot can be said about the quality of Moore's 'investigative journalism', his rather immature style, tireless repeating stuff that is no news to anyone etc. However, that would be beside the point.
So, Hanne sees the film, and writes: "Propaganda: Michael Moore är tillbaka". Half of her text is not about the movie, but Michael himself and what he represents (Moore supposedly says that capitalism has gone too far to be reformable). Then Hanne goes on to ramble that the only alternative is socialism, and Europe has some experience on that. You know, living beyond the iron curtain was actually not so nice, and hey, try and go make your movie in a country with no freedom of opinion!
She goes on to educate her readers that in a democratic society there is room for many an opinion and you can organize work even on non-profit basis (!), whereas in socialism there is only one "model" that makes people poor. And Mike should have definitely mentioned this in his movie!
The whole thing leaves a distinct wtf-feeling. What is going on? Does she realize that from the point of view of many Americans, Sweden is a socialist country. In fact, all countries following the venerable continantal market economy model (that includes welfare benefits, rational societal planning on a national scale, etc.) would be perceived as 'socialist' even though their conception precedes this concept. Then again, some more radical socialists might be annoyed if, say Sweden, would be advertised as a socialist country. Discussion with grossly simplified terms is rampant, but this must be a new simplification record. Use just two keywords with very ambiguous content (interpretations vary wildly).
It seems that Hanne has skipped all the history lessons in school. I would recommend a read-through of, for example, the history of liberalism.
In any case, Michael Moore is the black knight, the champion of evil socialism. And he wants people to be poor! Like in Sweden! Yup.
Excactly. I recently read a book by American writer where Swedes were described as "those happy socialists".
ReplyDelete