Chris Cook
Mike Moore has a point. Like it or not you can't deny that some of what he says looks as though it might be true. If you didn't like the United Sates of America, the land of the free, the home of the brave, before reading Stupid white men (and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation) then afterwards you should be scathing. Alternatively, if you were impartial or actually liked America before reading this book, prepare to have your opinion shifted! Because this is one hell of a critique!
Mike Moore takes a stand against all that he sees as unfit, wrong and downright scary in American society. At first you may think that he is having an unwarranted go at America, that things can't possibly be as bad as he says, but then something happens. Maybe it's at the point where you read the full story: George W. Bush's "triumphant" electoral campaign in 2000; the fact that Bush bombed Iraq in his first few weeks in office. But whenever it is, there comes a point where you realize that this guy is actually telling a version of the truth you have never heard before. You can't really believe all that Moore says, but can you now believe everything the American government says?
Moore's book is very much a satire of American society, but get past that and you can really feel chilled by the schemes, plots, policies and corruption that he unmasks. Bush's presidential victory, George "Dub-Ya" Bush, big business, the other type of 'white' person, the intelligence (or unintelligence) of the American nation, the environment, men declining as a sub-species, American records and American politics, it's all here.
We start with the presidential election, Gore versus Bush (and all his daddy's friends). December 2000: Bush was in trouble. Facing the fact that he was going to be defeated in Florida by Al Gore and facing the prospect of loosing the election, the Supreme Court halted the recounting of votes. What seems to get over looked time and time again was that the five justices were all right wing and ultra-conservative. All had a degree of conflicting interests in the case, but none stood down. Hmm…doesn't seem right does it? But it gets better, botched electoral cards, voters who were not allowed to enroll, selective counting of some votes (Bush votes) and not others (Gore votes), if all the votes were counted, Moore claims, Gore would have won by 300 - 400 votes. The repercussions would be enormous: America is being run by a president they didn't elect! Did someone say democracy?
Then we find that not only does America have a president they didn't vote for, they also have a Republican government riddled with conflicts of interest. Moore highlights 17 high profile members of Bush's government and points out several anomalies. To give the flavor of these people lets look at the Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham. "Spence," has opposed research into renewable energy, thinks oil drilling in Alaska was a good idea, and moved to abolish the department he now leads! Just the guy for the job...
So now that we have a declining faith in the government, what's next? Lets look at social trends in America, starting with the distribution of income and wealth. As Moore discovers, inequality in income and wealth is rife in America, and getting worse. From 1979 until now the richest 1% of the American population have had their incomes increase by 157%, the bottom 20% are making $100 a year less than they used to. But hang on, shouldn't welfare help these poor people on the bottom? Well actually no, because that would be funded by tax. 20% of Americans largest companies paid no tax in 1995 (the most recent figures), that's right, not a cent. General Motors, using government expenses and tax credits, actually ended up with the government paying them millions of dollars.
So if people can't crawl off the bottom of the heap where do they go? Simple… prison. In the US, upwards of 2,000,000 people are in prison. The land of the free seems like a joke. Thirty eight states in America still have the death penalty and there have been over 700 executions since 1976. The problem with these executions (besides the fact that children under 18 years can be executed, and that America is the only industrialized country on earth to execute its children) is that in 7 out of 10 of 4,578 cases examined, there was serious error in the case. What does this mean? It means America executes innocent people or people who, if they had a fair trial, may not have received the death penalty. But don't bother telling America they execute innocent people they already know. 59% of Texans believe their State has executed innocent people. 68% even said they think that's unfair, and yet, despite all that, 80% of Americans still support executing their fellow countrymen.
How can this trend be reversed? Perhaps through better education, okay, but first some problems need to be sorted out. At present, 44 million Americans are illiterate. But I suppose it's not really a setback in a country where you only spend 99 hours a year (that's 0.01% of your year) reading. But should it come as a surprise that Americans don't read? In 25% of all American school, textbooks date back well into the 80s. So in many American school students' textbooks, the Berlin wall still stands! Further, Bush has proposed to abolish the "Reading is Fundamental" program, which gives free books to poor children. What do you expect of a president who after going to Harvard and Yale brags about being a C grade student?
These examples should highlight that America is a country in serious trouble.
There are inconsistencies everywhere in the leadership, and social problems
are threatening to tear the county apart. The American 'empire' is starting
to crack. The only thing holding it together, is the perceived threat that is
the 'War on Terror'. So next time you read a newspaper or watch the TV, stop
and think. Am I getting the American version or the REAL version? If you look
below the surface to the reality I think you'll find America is not what you
thought it was.