Dude, Where’s My Country?
Moore, Michael. 2004. Dude, Where’s My Country? Grand Central Publishing.
Rating:
8
Summary:
Funnier; not quite as drawn out as his last; identical argument, different setting
Where Moore’s previous book, ‘Stupid White Men’, argued for social democracy and set the argument in the stolen election by George Bush, this book argues for the same thing, but situates the book in the events surrounding 9/11 and focuses on George Bush’s connections to the Middle East (Moore’s attack on big business), predominantly through his and his father’s oil dealings with Saudi Arabia.
Review:
Once again, the format of the book varies from informal prose, to a letter to George Bush, to a guest chapter by God (very funny, by the way). I’m not sure whether I like this approach or not as it adds variety but it can also be distracting from Moore’s agenda.
However, Moore has learned a couple of things this time around. First, I believe the book is a bit shorter, or at least I felt like it was, which may be due to the fact that I thought this book was funnier. So, he improved one of the major attractions to his book (the humor), and also improved on one of my previous criticisms – the length and repetition. Though this book, like his last, doesn’t really follow an order, at least it stays pretty consistently on one topic – trashing George Bush – where his last one kind of jumped around from topic to topic.
Given that I agreed with Moore’s last book (I’m all for social democracy), I can’t really say I disagree with him this time as he is really just arguing for the same thing. But, once again, there are several problems with the book.
Though Moore is getting closer to coming right out and saying that big business is generally bad because it exploits workers, I don’t think he has taken the argument to its logical conclusion, at least the conclusion that Karl Marx argued when it comes to capitalism – eventually the proletariat (the people Moore is writing for) are going to get sick of being exploited and will rise up, either peacefully or violently, and overthrow their oppressors. Of course, Moore is arguing for a peaceful removal of the bourgeoisie from power (though he does occasionally joke about calling in the U.N. to remove Bush from power forcefully). Perhaps Moore’s subtle, pro-Marxist argument is intentional – if he starts spouting off about the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, people are going to start calling him a communist. And since communism has such a bad name in the U.S., despite the fact that most people would agree that they want all of the benefits of Marxist communism (without the problems of Russian or Chinese Communism; yes, there is a difference), Moore wouldn’t have near the following that he has. I understand what he’s doing; if he got on the slippery slope that is pro-Marxist Communism, that may just be the end of his career. But I sure would like to see someone say it anyway.
The second problem I have with the book builds on the first – if Moore really is pushing for a social democratic agenda (a.k.a., Marxist communism), then why doesn’t he just come right out and say that big business is bad? Once again, Moore has not made explicit the connections he implies. Throughout he talks about how bad George Bush’s business dealings are (and those of his father and his wealthy friends and co-workers), but he never really explains why these dealings are so bad for the average American (i.e., those of us that don’t own a multi-national, Fortune 500 corporation). Perhaps he is, once again, not trying to upset too many people, but I’d like to see him make some explicit claims for once – put his neck on the chopping block; socialism is inevitable, someone is going to have to come right out and say it at some point and it may as well be Moore.
There are a couple of other things I think I should mention. I loved the format of the first chapter where he footnoted his claims, making his references easy to see. I recognize that many readers may find that annoying, but I like to know that I’m not being fed a line of bull. References do that for me; if I don’t believe it I can check the sources.
Finally, what’s with the name of the book? The book ends with the following quote, “Dude, where’s your country? It’s right outside your window, just waiting for you to bring it home” (p. 217), which is obviously supposed to be the source of the name. But it really isn’t tied in all that well to the main point and is only said once – at the very end. I guess, in a sense, Moore has continued what I see as a tradition of choosing titles that are eye catching, but don’t really represent the focus of his book. Sure, in a sense it’s kind of there, but at the same time I could better envision this book with the title, ‘George Bush: Bourgeoisie Extraordinaire’, or ‘George Bush: Satan’s Be-otch’. But that’s just me…
Once again, Moore has written a provocative book aimed at getting people to think. Though the connections between the topics discussed and Moore’s ultimate aim are not made explicit, the basic points are good ones. The book will likely not appeal to greedy capitalist pig-dogs, but it should inspire the proletariat of the world to ‘unite’. If we don’t, I guess we’ll deserve what we have coming – a filthy, polluted world where 1% of the population owns everything and the rest are their slaves. I don’t find that idea very appealing; I hope you don’t either. Despite Moore having made a good deal of money, he’s own our side – he wants to get read of the pig-dogs and give people healthcare and food to eat. Moore for President! Or Oprah…