Real Art

We went to see Michael Moore's "Sicko" yesterday afternoon. I think it is definitely his best movie so far. Sure, the trip to Cuba was a stunt, but the ideas underlying it were sound, well-justified, and well-documented. Michael really did his homework on this one.

It was really heart-wrenching to see the health-industry in the US laid bare for what it is: a place for unscrupulous people to make as much money as possible by finding any way to deny coverage to sick people. But this is a problem with capitalism as a whole. Corporations are in business to maximize profits, not the common good. Its a theme that is played out over and over in every aspect of our society: public transportation, DRM software, as well as medicine. I've thought for a long time that corporations should be required to document how they're serving the public good in order to remain incorporated -- that's how it used to be. In a global economy, however, even that might not be enough.

From the reviews I'd read, I hadn't appreciated that the movie goes beyond health-care to talk about the underlying causes of our societies ills: the way people in America, especially poor people, are systematically disempowered to discourage participation in political processes. If you can keep people fearful and demoralized, they will be afraid to rise up and do anything about it. And our political leaders seem only too happy to keep as many people as possible in that state.