by Clifta Frizzell

Created on: June 27, 2009   Last Updated: June 30, 2009

The Hero Takes a Fall: A Refutation of Michael Moore's Essay "Idiot Nation"

This article was based on a class assignment to find a valid way to refute something that you essentially agree with.

Let me start by saying that I'm a fan of Michael Moore's work. I admire his fearlessness in confronting the hypocrites and liars of this world, and as such I have a difficult time refuting his essay, "Idiot Nation". But after carefully studying the article I need to look at possible inaccuracies and flaws in logic.

He begins by slinging a lot of statistics at the reader without providing any citations of where he got his information. Who says 44 million Americans are functionally illiterate? Who did the study that found that we spend over 1000 hours a year watching TV? MIchael, don't bemoan the fact that that we're intellectaully lazy and then skip out on backing up your information.

And when you call former President Bush the "Idiot-in-Chief" who only got the presidency because of his father, his brother and Dad's cronies on the Supreme Court, I can only say...well...ok, fair enough. Bush's comments to his fellow "C"students at Yale, "You too can be President of the United States!" gave me the same vague nausea as hearing his wife smugly describe herself as a "Desperate Housewife."

But I digress.

Seriously, there is an excessive amount of personal attacks such as name calling and emotional diatribe at the expense of logic and solid, proveable facts. For instance, Moore presents us with a brief quiz to be administered to the "Yammering Pundits" and "So-Called Political Leaders" and states "Chances are the genius representing you in the legislature won't score 50% on the above test. The good news is you get to flunk him in a year or two." And I take exception to his sweeping generalization that we as a nation "...[go] out of [our] way to remain ignorant and stupid...). Especially by a guy who, by his own admission, dropped out of college because he couldn't find a parking space. The fact is, given the oppportunity and motivation, I think most Americans would welcome the chance to be more educated and well-informed. I agree with Noam Cholmsky whom Moore cites, that "The American mind is alive and well, it just isn't challenged by anything interesting or exciting.

Aye, there's the rub!

I also agree that it's tough for students to stay motivated in an atmospere of "Degrading comments, physical abuse and the belief that you're the only one not having sex". Aside from

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