I have a pal in the States, who shall remain nameless (J.G.), who would be the first person to remind me that I shouldn't believe everything I read.
Bear with me for a bit whilst I explain the background to this statement.
I've just come back from Aslı Börek (a favourite haunt that sells what can be best described as a seller of small lasagne like pasta with spinach fillings). I was glued to Fahrenheit 9/11 - the book. I borrowed it from my "sister-in-law".
If you aren't aware of the contents of the book or movie, my summation is that the entire American population was fooled by the Bush Administration into believing a whole bunch of things that Mr Moore has proven to be untrue.
Having just finished Part I - the "screenplay" of the movie - the idea that we are completely duped into believing that the democratic system is a good one came to mind. Inherent in this is that it is also a system that works.
At this point I must stick my hand up and state that I have never voted. Actually I stayed off the electoral roll for a good proportion of my voting life in an attempt (that worked) to avoid jury service. I simply couldn't bring myself to come to terms with the idea that making a decision on the basis of circumstantial, or other, evidence was something that I could sleep with. So I merrily or embarrassingly left that sordid task to others.
One could argue that in the past printed matter stood for something. It was something you could trust - I mean, why bother spending money on printing something that was false?
When I was growing up printed texts weren't something that you questioned.
Then along came the internet...
On the way home tonight it occurred to me (and this is no reflection on Mike Moore's work) that I still haven't got past the notion that everything printed is fact.
The funny thing is that I simply cannot accept "It can't be done" when it comes to verbal statements. It takes a lot of banging my head against a brick wall to finally say "OK. It can't be done. Well, not by me anyway." Yet, if I read it for myself I'll immediately come to terms with the negative.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents ....
Finally, why DC? Well it's where J.G. comes from and it's the centre of power in the US.
Bear with me for a bit whilst I explain the background to this statement.
I've just come back from Aslı Börek (a favourite haunt that sells what can be best described as a seller of small lasagne like pasta with spinach fillings). I was glued to Fahrenheit 9/11 - the book. I borrowed it from my "sister-in-law".
If you aren't aware of the contents of the book or movie, my summation is that the entire American population was fooled by the Bush Administration into believing a whole bunch of things that Mr Moore has proven to be untrue.
Having just finished Part I - the "screenplay" of the movie - the idea that we are completely duped into believing that the democratic system is a good one came to mind. Inherent in this is that it is also a system that works.
At this point I must stick my hand up and state that I have never voted. Actually I stayed off the electoral roll for a good proportion of my voting life in an attempt (that worked) to avoid jury service. I simply couldn't bring myself to come to terms with the idea that making a decision on the basis of circumstantial, or other, evidence was something that I could sleep with. So I merrily or embarrassingly left that sordid task to others.
One could argue that in the past printed matter stood for something. It was something you could trust - I mean, why bother spending money on printing something that was false?
When I was growing up printed texts weren't something that you questioned.
Then along came the internet...
On the way home tonight it occurred to me (and this is no reflection on Mike Moore's work) that I still haven't got past the notion that everything printed is fact.
The funny thing is that I simply cannot accept "It can't be done" when it comes to verbal statements. It takes a lot of banging my head against a brick wall to finally say "OK. It can't be done. Well, not by me anyway." Yet, if I read it for myself I'll immediately come to terms with the negative.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents ....
Finally, why DC? Well it's where J.G. comes from and it's the centre of power in the US.
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