"Capitalism: A Love Story" by Michael Moore

Twenty years ago I saw Michael Moore's first film, Roger and Me. That film told the story of the devastation of Flint, Michigan in the face of deindustrialization and the filmmaker's efforts to meet with the then, C.E.O. Roger Smith.

His current film, Capitalism: A Love Story tells the story of Flint, writ large. It's twenty years later. The disaster is no longer contained within the Rust Belt of the Northeast. It has spread to the South and the West and beyond. As in Roger and Me, Moore is at his best when he shows the impact of the destructive force of corporate capitalism on the lives of ordinary Americans -- taking the viewer inside the homes of those facing foreclosure and the workplaces of those displaced by corporate giants who feed at the public trough while leaving in their wake a trail of stagnant wages as well as declines in standards of living, health, education, etc.

Beyond these economic costs, Moore also shows how greed has taken a toll on our democracy. As large behemoths become "too large to fail", they destroy the very fabric of communities and the health of our democracy.

Moore also points in the direction of an alternative future that might have been. Articulated by FDR in 1937, the "Economic Bill of Rights" extended political rights to include a vision of justice for all Americans:

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

While Moore overreaches when he presents FDR's death as the sole reason for the demise of this second Bill of Rights, it still has left us with a legacy of what we could become. We have been struggling with competing definitions of the rights of citizenship -- protection of the wealth and power of the few while narrowing the scope of rights for everyone else to include "the right to fail" or the foundation of universal human rights to economic security, health, education, etc. -- ever since.

Looking back over the last twenty years, it is easy to see which side of the divide has won. However, if we go back even further to those who crafted the democratic institutions we hold dear, in search of clues, we can see a strong belief in the "public good." Our founding fathers (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin) warned of the dangers of inequities of wealth and power on a healthy democracy. They endorsed a notion that we, as citizens, are responsible for putting our individual desires aside to work toward the good of all.

John Winthrop's "City on the Hill," the grossly misused metaphor twisted by Reagan and others to endorse rampant greed and international domination, contained within it a moral clarion call to tend to the needs and the suffering of others. Even Adam Smith, the exhalted original disciple of the free market, spoke of the need for reigning in personal gain to pursue a larger moral purpose.

Somewhere along the line, we lost sight of these truly democratic values. The long nightmare that Moore has documented so well in his films serves as an important reminder not only of how greed runs amok and threatens the very well-being of our community, but also how we can reclaim our democracy "of, for and by the people."

As illustrated in the film, the defenders of real freedom -- the Sit-down Strikers in Flint in the 1930s and the UE workers who staged a sit-down at Chicago's Republic Windows and Doors plant -- have shown a way to get on a track toward a more just and humane future. Now it is up to us...

For a sneak preview, check out the trailer: