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Courtesy: Where to Invade Next
Where to Invade Next: Michael Moore Conquers the World
The deceptively titled Where to Invade Next is a continuation of Michael Moore’s life-long examination and disparagement of social, economic, and political inequities in the United States.
No, it’s not about a consideration of which middle eastern country the U.S. military should invade—although we know that’s an ongoing dialog in America’s halls of power.
Instead, Moore does the invading. He single-handedly invades about a dozen nations. Instead of taking their oil or some other extracted natural or human resource, Moore steals a virtue, a policy from each country—a radical approach to education from Finland; healthy, gourmet, leisure lunches served to seated school children in France; countries with enlightened sex education; or which provide free college education; or with highly enlightened, justice-based incarceration policies, etc. For each theft, Moore ceremoniously plants an American flag claiming this virtue now belongs to the United States, and he’s bringing it back here—adding that, in fact, it originated from the United States.
Moore’s trademarked ironic humor abounds, of course—both verbally and visually. Humor aside, this is Michael Moore’s most incisive, subversive, impassioned, and inspiring plea for a more compassionate United States of America. More just. More caring. A country that honors human dignity.
Coda: A test. Most of the countries featured are European. I imagine the influx to Europe of middle eastern refugees is testing many social welfare and educational systems. I wonder what that impact will be. Over the last two years more than 1.6 million people have immigrated, and as of this writing, there’s no sign that this movement of people—in some measure—will stop.
Don Schwartz