_Bowling for Columbine_
Oct. 30th, 2002 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
semperfionaGo see it. For those lucky enough to be local, it's playing at the Hi-Pointe and the Plaza Frontenac.
I'd never seen any of Michael Moore's documentaries before. I was impressed.
I've got a lot of thoughts running around in my head, but the thing that is most striking at the moment is the whole question of America being a culture of fear, and secondarily the fact that it shouldn't surprise us that individual Americans react to negative situations with violence when the national government does exactly the same thing.
Another thing one of his Canadian interviewees said: "It's not a win unless everybody wins." When's the last time you heard any American in a position of power say that? We're all about one winner and everyone else losers.
Most of the facile explanations for America's culture of violence were quickly refuted. Including some that I myself have used. So then why are we different? Is it really the saturation of our airwaves with fear-invoking stories? What else is there?
I'd never seen any of Michael Moore's documentaries before. I was impressed.
I've got a lot of thoughts running around in my head, but the thing that is most striking at the moment is the whole question of America being a culture of fear, and secondarily the fact that it shouldn't surprise us that individual Americans react to negative situations with violence when the national government does exactly the same thing.
Another thing one of his Canadian interviewees said: "It's not a win unless everybody wins." When's the last time you heard any American in a position of power say that? We're all about one winner and everyone else losers.
Most of the facile explanations for America's culture of violence were quickly refuted. Including some that I myself have used. So then why are we different? Is it really the saturation of our airwaves with fear-invoking stories? What else is there?
