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First, I owe all of you an apology for my having been such an itinerant blogger in recent weeks. It looks as if this summer
(brain-steaming season here in the moist heated sponge known as Maryland) might be that way for me at times. Plus I've done
some traveling. I thank you for reading and I promise I will do my best to give you reason to keep coming back and visiting
through the dog days.
Okay, down to business. Today's blog message is easy:
Run, do not jog or walk, to see Al Gore's galvanizing new movie, An Inconvenient Truth.
Even if you are pissed at Al, as a lot of us are, for his having allowed the corporate auction known as American electoral
politics to shrink him in the 2000 election to a size that actually created a close contest with an obvious lout and charlatan,
go and see the movie. Even though you'll likely wonder aloud during the screening, "Where the ##%!!@! was this Al Gore
when we needed him?", go and see the movie. Just go and see it. You will be glad you did, and you will end up eagerly
yelping to others the same words I keep repeating to you now: Go see it.
I'll spare you a movie review. There are plenty of them, and you already know about this film anyway. What's important
is simply that you see it. Because this movie constitutes one of those rare opportunities when one segment of the corporate
media -- in this case Paramount Pictures -- has an economic interest in bringing you a story that other segments of the corporate
media -- namely the major newspapers and networks -- have either blacked out or distorted into false quietude.
The blockbuster message of Gore's little movie is that there is absolute unanimity at the top levels of science about
the current status of global warming and its apocalyptic consequences. Paramount decided that it could make money on a film
bringing these facts to audiences. Mainstream journalists, meanwhile (as Gore points out to devastating effect in the film),
have spent the past decade presenting pallid, feckless accounts of the "debate" over global warming and paying tribute
to the "two sides" of the issue. The film An Inconvenient Truth, with Gore's big name and the attendant media frenzy
over him as a kind of enviro-star, has accomplished something remarkable: it has put major corporate horsepower behind a progressive
message.
Okay, maybe "progressive" is too strong a word. This is still Al Gore we're talking about, after all. Terms
such as "monopoly capitalism" and "redistribution of wealth" may never pass his lips. But still, the film
reveals an Al Gore we have never previously seen, saying things we have never heard him say. This Al Gore is nervy. He's in
your face. He's seemingly allergic to bullshit (Al Gore??). He's brilliantly articulate with the facts. He's even funny, for
God's sake. Any self-respecting progressive who doesn't take the momentum created by this film and run with it deserves to
be flogged with 10 more years' worth of newspapers parroting Republican talking points.
So I'll repeat: Go and see this film. By showing us Gore at his best as a passionate gadfly, An Inconvenient Truth makes
an unstated but clear mockery of the liars and dissemblers who now pass for American political leaders: the smarmy emcee Bush,
the conniving energy-industry fixer Cheney, and the rest of the brazenly crooked crew now rolling the planet over the cliff
amid a smokescreen of "War On Terror" bluster. Gore's film, terrifying as it is in its depiction of soon-to-be irreversible
climate catastrophe, is also a downright uplifting example of what politics can and should be: an arena in which a publicly-spirited
advocate stands before the people and makes his case without being crippled by fear of losing an election.
Yeah, we could have used this Al Gore in 2000. But we sure as hell need what he's doing now.
Have I mentioned yet that you need to go and see this film?
(Posted 6/21/06)
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