Fahrenheit 11/9

If you look back on Michael Moore's career, starting with Roger & Me, you see several well-crafted documentaries working within the most civilly disobedient of traditions, each of them championing social justice and attempting to inspire political change, as American as Pepsi apple pie, overflowing with effervescent goodwill.

He clearly abhors corporate greed and would like wealth to be distributed more fairly within the U.S, and has gone to great lengths to pursue his altruistic goals even as the situation has become remarkably worse since he began filming in 1989.

It's difficult to get an accurate picture of what's happening in the U.S, apart from the fact that Trump is likely crazy, because so many different journalists are writing about so many different aspects of a labyrinthine abstract construction, physically existing within specific boundaries no doubt, yet truly so vast, so incredibly complex, that I doubt anyone has ever understood the big picture.

Although the ending to Sean Baker's The Florida Project makes a lasting impression.

Just because something is incredible, seems beyond comprehension, even if you read all the latest books about it, doesn't mean you don't try to comprehend it, I only mention the abstract colossus because so many people are currently working in the United States and that is indeed a good thing.

I don't like Trump, he's turned a relatively stable world into a contentious polemic, and I don't know if his policies are directly responsible for the thousands of jobs that have been created down South, and I don't know how many of those jobs are steady 9-5 positions complete with decent wages, breaks, and benefits, but I do consistently read that thousands of people are back to work, and I can't dismiss that categorically even if I support different approaches to politics.

I love that people are working again even if I rather strongly dislike Mr. Trump.

Fahrenheit 11/9 breaks contemporary American politics down with unabashed Moorian vigour, uplifting progressive statistics tragically juxtaposed with downtrodden initiatives, myriad stunning examples as breathtaking as they are horrifying.

The picture painted is bleak to say the least, and I'm not here to contradict his assessment.

His examples aren't numerous enough to definitively frame the Democratic Party within the portrait he depicts, but they are revealing enough to start making reasonable accusations about the ways in which it goes about choosing its candidates.

If you can't allow your members to freely choose who represents you, even if a candidate doesn't fit a specific mold, it's distressing, and prone to manifest disillusion.

Trump rode unpredictability straight to the White House, and hasn't let up since for an instant.

Moore castigates the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, The New York Times, Union Leadership in West Virginia, and his rational enough presentation, which should be accompanied by a recommended reading list (it may have been in the end credits), seems generally hopeless, apart from its praise for Bernie Sanders and rising young Democratic candidates.

I started following Sanders on Instagram and he is incredible, the real deal, the genuine article, Jack Laytonesque.

He's as active as Trump but I rarely read about him in The New York Times.

It's like The New York Times is suicidally linked with Trump, like they're so dependent upon the revenue his antics generate, antics which constantly deride and attempt to ruin them, that they're afraid to take a financial hit and start backing a politician whom they would theoretically adore.

The people clearly love him.

His actions should be making headlines every day.

Scripted, Moore makes everything seem scripted, like people who don't subscribe to The New York Times don't matter, like they've stopped trying to find alternative means to generate revenue, and the Democratic Party is sticking too closely to a worn out formula.

But Sanders, the young alternative Democratic politicians, the teachers, and the workers Moore interviews are first rate, and I admire the ways in which they boldly stand up for hardworking Americans.

At the same time, should the situation become even more bleak, people can always look beyond politics.

You can form community groups which take communal action, work with each other to exemplify dreams elites have cynically classified unattainable, focus on taking non-violent actions that can lead to progressive change, the key perhaps being to simply listen to each other without sarcastically dismissing points of view or making others look ridiculous, and recognizing that within a democracy everyone's voice matters, regardless of income, education, race, gender, or sexual orientation.

If people create what they're hoping the government will create themselves, when a government finally comes along which supports their objectives there could be an extended period of widespread bliss casually sashaying through Congress for an extended period.

It's happened before, even if when people say the system's broken they're technically right.

Always.

To paraphrase Plato, and, I, Claudius, the system has always been broken, there never was a golden age where harmony prospered everywhere and everyone got along harmoniously.

Political systems aren't trucks.

You can take a truck in to be fixed.

One, two, maybe three mechanics work on it, not thousands of people from different regions with different backgrounds.

It's much less complicated to fix a truck.

A truck is real.

It exists physically.

That doesn't mean you don't stop trying to fix political systems.

If you stop trying to fix them, true darkness descends, and, to quote Pink Floyd, [you have to] get out of the road if you want to grow old (Sheep, Animals).

I believe in governments who want to help their citizens prosper and are committed to creating societies where it is possible for everyone to have the opportunity to do so.

But with a situation as grim as that presented in Fahrenheit 11/9, it looks like a lot of American people need to start creating paradise on Earth themselves, one self-sacrificing step soberly taken at a time.

*Idea for grassroots politicians hoping to make a difference: stop campaigning traditionally. Stop going door to door. Find a super rough demanding job and start working hard labour. Not for an afternoon, not for a coffee break in the morning, but for months at a time, tweeting and posting videos all the way. Then you'll really learn what it's like to live that kind of life and be so much more ready to defend those who do in Congress. Plus, you'll get to know so many wonderful people whom you may have never met otherwise. And learn what they really want and why they really want it. Remember. You're not the boss. You need the job. Your family's struggling. And you can't quit. That's my suggestion for new campaigning methods. According to Michael Moore's oeuvre, nothing else is working.