>I thought you would enjoy this :-)
>
>
>The following is from the Nation-November 17, 1997.
>
>IS THE LEFT NUTS? (OR IS IT ME?)
>by Michael Moore
>
>
>Is it me, or is the left completely nuts? I won't bore you with the
>details of October's Media and Democracy Congress, but suffice it to say
>that the left is still in fine form, completely ignoring anything that
>really matters to the American public. I'm convinced there's a good
>number of you who are simply addicted to listening to yourselves talk
>and talk and talk -- MUMIA! PACIFICA! CUBA! ENOUGH ALREADY!
>Speaking of talking to ourselves -- just who the hell is reading this?
>Who is the Nation readership? Is it my brother-in-law, Tony, back in
>Flint, who last night was installing furnace ducts until 9 o'clock? Is
>it the bus driver at the airport who told me he's been cut back to a
>thirty-hour week so the airport commission won't have to pay the health
>insurance for his asthmatic daughter? Is it the woman at Sears who sells
>blouses by day, and then waitresses at Denny's from 8 P.M. to midnight?
>No. The person reading this would probably sympathize with the one who
>wrote the flier I saw at the media congress announcing a "Stop Police
>Brutality Demonstration." The flier promised a rally "from 4 P.M. UNTIL
>THE TRUTH COMES OUT!" Until the truth comes out? Let me tell you,
>friend, the truth ain't ever coming out at your rally, and neither is
>Tony the furnace installer, 'cause he's got mouths to feed. But you
>don't really mean by saying that the demonstration is going to last
>"until the truth comes out" is that it will go deep into the night,
>until all self-serving, attention-starved "lefties" have had their hour
>and fifteen minutes at the podium. Get a clue! Go away!
>Is it true what they say about "the left" -- that it loves humanity but
>loathes people? I want to let you in on a little secret I've discovered:
>"The people" are already way ahead of "the left." After years of being
>downsized, rightsized, re-engineered and forced to work longer hours for
>less pay and fewer benefits, they already know from their personal
>experience that our economic system is unfair, unjust and undemocratic.
>They know the evil it does and the havoc it wreaks on their lives. They
>know that corporate America is the enemy, that the media are telling
>them lies and that the Democrats and the Republicans are actually the
>same party, and that neither is worth voting for. Look at any Gallup
>poll and you'll see that the public is very "left" on all the issues --
>the majority are pro-choice, pro-environment, pro-labor.
>Yet they despise liberals. If they knew where to find the nutty left,
>they'd despise them, too. They see liberals, progressives and lefties as
>arrogant, self-righteous and dreadfully predictable. They know you won't
>ever go have a beer with them, or talk to them about how the Indians did
>in teh Series. Christ, can you even name a single Cleveland Indian?
>And why should you? You've got The Nation and Pacifica, and food co-op
>and your Working Assets credit card. Don't get me wrong -- I love The
>Nation and Pacifica and food co-ops and not supporting Citibank. But if
>you stop there and refuse to participate in the real world, how are you
>ever going to effect change? Back in the eighties thousands of you went
>to Nicaragua in Sandinista brigades. Yes, that was important work; our
>government was killing innocent people. But I never saw a single one of
>you come to Flint while the world's largest company was destroying the
>lives of 30,000 families. Where were you when we needed you? The people
>in Flint were ready -- Jesse Jackson beat Dukakis by a 9-to-1 margin
>there. In the white suburbs, Jackson beat him by a 4-to-1 margin! You
>should have come! The right wing did. They organized the Michigan
>Militia. It's no accident that Terry Nichols is from the Flint area.
>Here's the part I don't get. Remember the antiwar movement, when we
>didn't have the American public on our side and actually had to go out
>and convince people the war was wrong? That was tough, but we did it.
>These days, the difficult organizing work has already been done for us
>by Big Business. It has spent the past decade destroying the middle
>class and brutalizing the poor. Beating up on the poor, I get -- that's
>the way it's always been. But the middle class? What a stupid error in
>judgment -- and now there are millions of Americans waiting to vent
>their anger and frustration.
>And where are we? Inside New York's Cooper Union chanting for Mumia! I
>want Mumia to live, I've signed the petitions, I've helped pay for the
>ads -- hell, I'll personally go and kick the butt of the governor of
>Pennsylvania! But, for chrissakes, the woman working at Sears just wants
>to be able to spend an hour with her kids before she heads off to
>Denny's. Can't we help her? Do you want to help her?
>It's taken me a while to figure it all out, and after last month's Media
>and Democracy Congress I think I have the answer: Because "the left" has
>lost so many battles, it now doesn't know how to live any other way.
>It's kind of scary, isn't it, to think that we could actually reach a
>mass audience. Or that after all these years of failure, real change
>could actually occur in our lifetime. Better to fight among ourselves!
>It's an uncomfortable, unfamiliar feeling, isn't it, to get a whiff of
>real populist progressive movement taking shape. Better that we keep
>those furnace installers and bus drivers away from us -- they don't read
>Chomsky anyway!
>The signs are everywhere, but "the left" can't read a road map. There's
>a whole New Politics taking place, and it's being led by UPS drivers and
>Borders bookstore workers. I say, with all due affection and
>appreciation for all of you and your causes, get over yourselves and
>start talking like a real person, then start talking to real people. You
>could begin by hitting 0 every time you get a robot when you call 411.
>Have a chat with the human operator -- the phone company will eventually
>have to hire more of them. Or sponsor a bowling team and put the name of
>your local Labor Party or environmental group on their shirts. Or try
>bowling yourself. It's where you'll meet Americans.
>
>
Andrew Hund
http://cwolf.uaa.alaska.edu/~asajh/Soc/