Michael Moore Still Controversial, Portly
By Brandon Routman
Staff Writer

On Thursday night, Michael Moore came to Pomona and probably made some controversial statements. Although I am writing this article beforehand (surely a journalistic faux pas), I think making this claim is a fairly safe bet. Based upon his body of work, it is obvious he does not pull many political punches, and because of this he is both highly-acclaimed and severely reviled.

But whether you agree with him or not, whether you despise his arrogant, manipulative style or applaud his straight-forward, unassuming, guy-next-door demeanor, one thing is certain: he will most definitely get a rise out of you. And for this reason, he is the perfect antidote to political apathy. If you believe what he says, then you will join his ranks; if you are skeptical but curious, you will probably be enticed to learn more; and if you vehemently loathe him, you will probably do research to try to take away his Oscar for Bowling for Columbine. In any case, democracy wins; an informed public is better than the alternative. And in an era of general, indefinite terrorism alerts, an informed public is a necessity. It is easy to be lulled into a government-induced complacency about the world, simply believing what the powerful want us to believe. The problem is, though, once we are there, we cannot go back. If it were not for people like Michael Moore, who rattle a few cages and throw a few bombshells now and again, the decline into the abyss of complacency would be a steep one.

In the same vein, Moore also reminds us that, as Americans, we have a degree of political efficacy. We are free to vote, to join organizations, and to debate issues—freedoms citizens of some countries are denied. What is more important, by exercising these freedoms we can genuinely change the status quo. Moore himself is a good example. Here is a guy who was born to a working-class family working at a car factory in Flint, Michigan. Early on he had a number of jobs, none of them for very long; he went to the University of Michigan Flint and dropped out. Now look at him: he is an award winning film maker, with a television show and a New York Times bestseller under his belt. More significantly, he has addressed a number of social ills through these mediums and, to a degree, has corrected a few of them.

As far as opinions go, his are pretty controversial; hence my prediction in the first paragraph. Yet his ideas are usually taken with a grain of salt because his style is such that the audience doesn’t know to what extent he is serious. This, I feel, is the mark of a good satirist; he makes us find the line between something reasonable and something not. He challenges us to think for ourselves more then any other figure on the current political stage.

However, he has been highly criticized for skewing evidence. In his most recent movie Bowling for Columbine, he came under fire for, among other things, distorting the chronology of the events that the movie details. In fact, there is a growing popular movement trying to revoke the Oscar he won for his work. His opponents simply say that there is too much falsehood in the movie for it to be a documentary. But even with the credibility of his work questioned, I still feel Moore is a positive force in American politics today. He is a crusader. He sees the world and tries to improve it.

His great potential, though, lies not in what he can do individually, but by what he can inspire other people to do collectively. In a country where President Bush has a high approval rating and emphasizes the values of trust and loyalty, demarcating a clear line between “allies” and “evil-doers,” Michael Moore urges us to think for ourselves, to challenge authority and to follow our own political conscience. And this is something we should cherish.