Why Michael Moore’s new film ‘Where to Invade Next’ will scare the establishment (VIDEO)

If Michael Moore’s movie catches on, plutocracy loses

This Valentine’s Day weekend I finally stepped away from both my radio show and incessant blogging for a few hours. I got my wife her requisite flowers, chocolates, and a few other things. She chose our favorite Indian restaurant, India’s, where I gouged on the best spiciest food in Houston, Texas. After dinner we went to the movies. We did not go see one of the cheezy movies meant for mindless entertainment — boy meets girl, mandatory irrelevant sex scene, conflict, improbable resolution.We went to see Michael Moore’s new film, ‘Where to Invade.’ How good was the movie? Both my wife and I loved it, a rarity on movie agreement.

Ironically, as I am walking out of the theater, a theatre that is thirty miles from my home — the movie only opened in three theatres in Houston, the fourth largest city in the country — I notice three friends from one of the groups I am a member of, Houston Peace and Justice Center (HPJC). We conversed for a while and discussed how both entertaining and informational the movie was. I told Joe that I was going to write a review of the film.

This morning I woke up and started scanning my news feed. There it was, a review on the film from The Guardian,  Michael Moore’s new documentary is his biggest flop yet. Michael Moore contracted pneumonia last week and was unable to do his 50-date promotional tour and talk show appearance. In other words, the film made an acceptable amount of money in its first weekend with virtually no promotion while opening in a small number of theatres not very accessible to many. What was also left out is that it was the highest grossing documentary of the year so far.

So what do I think about the film? I loved it. Was it factual? Yes. Did it have a liberal bias? Yes. Does that matter? No. Why? Because the movie gives real life examples of liberal policies working for humanity in the other countries, real time laboratories. As any objective observer must note, conservative policies continue to fail miserably for the masses in America.

I won’t go into detail about the film because it should be experienced in its entirety. Suffice it to say the following:

• The movie illustrates a reality that has to be seen from abroad. Most people around the world love the concept of America being sold by our plutocracy around the world. As naturalized citizen myself, the America we see from abroad is much different than the America for all but those who were fortunate like myself to live the ‘American dream.’ In the movie, a couple who enjoys all the perks of their democratic socialist country, dreamed about living in America until they realized the perks that they were use to were nonexistent in America.
• Other countries have instituted drug and penal policies that are more humane with much better results.
• While America preaches about gender equality we lag behind as our policies penalize women because they are women.
• Corporations can profit from investing in employees and treating them like human beings.
• The burden we put on students both in K-12 to college has progressively diminished our performance relative to countries that invest in their people.

What I loved about this movie is that it shows with real life examples a reality about other countries the reality of what democratic socialism really looks like. The average American tend to insular. They have been taught that they are exceptional. They have been taught that the foreign way is not the American way. Ironically what Michael Moore shows factually in his film is that many of the policies instituted in these democratic socialist countries, our allies, many in NATO, had their genesis in America.

By no means do I believe that there are not problems in the countries that Michael Moore ‘invaded.’ We know there are many problems. I find it ironic that much of their problems have their genesis in an attempt to adopt a selfish U.S. model of capitalistic growth at all cost. But that is for another blog post.

Here is the bottom line. I expect Michael Moore’s movie, ‘Where to Invade Next’ to be disparaged by the establishment, the plutocracy, as people see what America could be. This is a film every American must watch. This is a film every American must encourage every American to go see. This is a film that implicitly illustrates that we have been screwed by our own government with failed conservative policies. This is a film that gives us hope in what America can be.