What’s a conservative Christian like me doing watching a documentary from progressive activist and documentarian Michael Moore? I have actually watched all of his documentaries, most of which focus on a mean-spirited critique of America’s economic and social structure. Most of them make some good points about how Americans have allowed corporate greed and political bureaucracy to get us away from being the nation that our founding fathers established.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu5B3M2Ogjo&w=560&h=315]
His most recent film is all about this theme, however he changes up his theme in a big way. It is not a critique, but a graceful and witty film that offers possible solutions to the problems that Moore believes plague the United States. He identifies these solutions by “invading” countries in Europe and North Africa with the hopes to take some of their best ideas back to the US.
Moore admits that he looks only at each country’s positive achievements and ignores its problems. He uses each country to illustrate one way government can help citizens navigate through the various stages of their lives – education, employment, parenthood, and retirement. Moore celebrates the ways these countries have found to temper Capitalism with strict regulations and a solid set of social-welfare programs.
In Italy, he chats with a couple about a law that compels employers to provide up to 22 weeks of paid maternity leave. As Moore reminds viewers, America is the only country in the world besides Papua New Guinea that doesn’t provide its citizens with paid maternity leave. In France, he hangs out at a public school that treats the lunch hour as part of the curriculum. The school chef cooks fresh meals daily using local ingredients. It’s far cheaper per head, Moore argues, than the gross frozen food that American schools buy in bulk.
He visits a factory in Germany where he learns that, by law, rank-and-file employees must make up 50 percent of each company’s governing board. Another law forbids bosses from contacting employees who are on vacation. These examples show that Europeans – at least those Moore profiles – value quality of life far more than wealth.
Where to Invade Next is Moore’s most radical film because it shows there are countries that refuse to shape policy according to the logic of profit and wealth alone, but also factor in the notion of the public good. The higher taxes their citizens pay goes to establish free health care, cheap day care, well-funded public schools. If those needs are met, Moore argues, people are less likely to be obsessed with wealth and more concerned about forming social bonds. It would take a massive revolution to make these things happen in America, but our nation was formed through a massive revolution, perhaps it is time for another one that brings us back to where we should be.