A letter from Michael Moore
Posted on 06. Nov, 2011 by Michael Moore in US
Life Among the 1% …
Dear Friends,
Twenty-two years ago this coming Tuesday, I stood with a group of factory workers, students and the unemployed in the middle of the downtown of my birthplace, Flint, Michigan, to announce that the Hollywood studio, Warner Bros., had purchased the world rights to distribute my first movie, 'Roger & Me.' A reporter asked me, "How much did you sell it for?"
"Three million dollars!" I proudly exclaimed. A cheer went up from the union guys surrounding me. It was absolutely unheard of for one of us in the working class of Flint (or anywhere) to receive such a sum of money unless one of us had either robbed a bank or, by luck, won the Michigan lottery. On that sunny November day in 1989, it was like I had won the lottery — and the people I had lived and struggled with in Michigan were thrilled with my success. It was like, one of us had made it, one of us finally had good fortune smile upon us. The day was filled with high-fives and "Way-ta-go Mike!"s. When you are from the working class you root for each other, and when one of you does well, the others are beaming with pride — not just for that one person's success, but for the fact that the team had somehow won, beating the system that was brutal and unforgiving and which ran a game that was rigged against us. We knew the rules, and those rules said that we factory town rats do not get to make movies or be on TV talk shows or have our voice heard on any national stage. We were to shut up, keep our heads down, and get back to work. If by some miracle one of us escaped and commandeered a mass audience and some loot to boot — well, holy mother of God, watch out! A bully pulpit and enough cash to raise a ruckus — that was an incendiary combination, and it only spelled trouble for those at the top.
Until that point I had been barely getting by on unemployment, collecting $98 a week. Welfare. The dole. My car had died back in April so I had gone seven months with no vehicle. Friends would take me out to dinner, always coming up with an excuse to celebrate or commemorate something and then picking up the check so I would not have to feel the shame of not being able to afford it.
And now, all of a sudden, I had three million bucks! What would I do with it? There were men in suits making many suggestions to me, and I could see how those without a strong moral sense of social responsibility could be easily lead down the "ME" path and quickly forget about the "WE."
So I made some easy decisions back in 1989:
1. I would first pay all my taxes. I told the guy who did my 1040 not to declare any deductions other than the mortgage and to pay the full federal, state and city tax rate. I proudly contributed nearly 1 million dollars for the privilege of being a citizen of this great country.
2. Of the remaining $2 million, I decided to divide it up the way I once heard the folksinger/activist Harry Chapin tell me how he lived: "One for me, one for the other guy." So I took half the money — $1 million — and established a foundation to give it all away.
3. The remaining million went like this: I paid off all my debts, paid off the debts of some friends and family members, bought my parents a new refrigerator, set up college funds for our nieces and nephews, helped rebuild a black church that had been burned down in Flint, gave out a thousand turkeys at Thanksgiving, bought filmmaking equipment to send to the Vietnamese (my own personal reparations for a country we had ravaged), annually bought 10,000 toys to give to Toys for Tots at Christmas, got myself a new American-made Honda, and took out a mortgage on an apartment above a Baby Gap in New York City.
4. What remained went into a simple, low-interest savings account. I made the decision that I would never buy a share of stock (I didn't understand the casino known as the New York Stock Exchange and I did not believe in investing in a system I did not agree with).
5. Finally, I believed the concept of making money off your money had created a greedy, lazy class who didn't produce any product, just misery and fear among the populace. They invented ways to buy out companies and then shut them down. They dreamed up schemes to play with people's pension funds as if it were their own money. They demanded companies keep posting record profits (which was accomplished by firing thousands and eliminating health benefits for those who remained). I made the decision that if I was going to earn a living, it would be done from my own sweat and ideas and creativity. I would produce something tangible, something others could own or be entertained by or learn from. My work would create employment for others, good employment with middle class wages and full health benefits.
I went on to make more movies, produce TV series and write books. I never started a project with the thought, "I wonder how much money I can make at this?" And by never letting money be the motivating force for anything, I simply did exactly what I wanted to do. That attitude kept the work honest and unflinching — and that, in turn I believe, resulted in millions of people buying tickets to these films, tuning in to my TV shows, and buying my books.
Which is exactly what has driven the Right crazy when it comes to me. How did someone from the left get such a wide mainstream audience?! This just isn't supposed to happen (Noam Chomsky, sadly, will not be booked on The View today, and Howard Zinn, shockingly, didn't make the New York Times bestseller list until after he died). That's how the media machine is rigged — you are not supposed to hear from those who would completely change the system to something much better. Only wimpy liberals who urge caution and compromise and mild reforms get to have their say on the op-ed pages or Sunday morning chat shows.
Somehow, I found a crack through the wall and made it through. I feel very blessed that I have this life — and I take none of it for granted. I believe in the lessons I was taught back in Catholic school — that if you end up doing well, you have an even greater responsibility to those who don't fare the same. "The last shall be first and the first shall be last." Kinda commie, I know, but the idea was that the human family was supposed to divide up the earth's riches in a fair manner so that all of God's children would have a life with less suffering.
I do very well — and for a documentary filmmaker, I do extremely well. That, too, drives conservatives bonkers. "You're rich because of capitalism!" they scream at me. Um, no. Didn't you take Econ 101? Capitalism is a system, a pyramid scheme of sorts, that exploits the vast majority so that the few at the top can enrich themselves more. I make my money the old school, honest way by making things. Some years I earn a boatload of cash. Other years, like last year, I don't have a job (no movie, no book) and so I make a lot less. "How can you claim to be for the poor when you are the opposite of poor?!" It's like asking: "You've never had sex with another man — how can you be for gay marriage?!" I guess the same way that an all-male Congress voted to give women the vote, or scores of white people marched with Martin Luther Ling, Jr. (I can hear these righties yelling back through history: "Hey! You're not black! You're not being lynched! Why are you with the blacks?!"). It is precisely this disconnect that prevents Republicans from understanding why anyone would give of their time or money to help out those less fortunate. It is simply something their brain cannot process. "Kanye West makes millions! What's he doing at Occupy Wall Street?!" Exactly — he's down there demanding that his taxes be raised. That, to a right-winger, is the definition of insanity. To everyone else, we are grateful that people like him stand up, even if and especially because it is against his own personal financial interest. It is specifically what that Bible those conservatives wave around demands of those who are well off.
Back on that November day in 1989 when I sold my first film, a good friend of mine said this to me: "They have made a huge mistake giving someone like you a big check. This will make you a very dangerous man. And it proves that old saying right: 'The capitalist will sell you the rope to hang himself with if he thinks he can make a buck off it.'"
Yours,
Michael Moore
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17 Responses to “A letter from Michael Moore”
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Brad_Smith
07. Nov, 2011
LOL not a capitalist? Please, give me a break. The only way you are not a capitalist is if you make up your own defintion and that is exactly what you have done.
It's great that you made a buddle, good for you but don't try and pretend you are something you are not.
Ps. Republicans give more to charity than Democrats. So explain that?
T Bagg
08. Nov, 2011
I don't understand why people dislike MM so much. He makes good movies, they make you think about stuff like, gee, why hasn't the mainstream, media mentioned anything about building 7 or Bush's lie about WMD's? Why should America be the last Western nation to have free health care? Why do Canadians leave their doors unlocked at night while people in Detorit are afraid of getting shot? Why does the working man always get stiffed while jerks in suits get golden parachutes?
Many of you successful Republicans out there are blinded because you think that "if I can make it anyone can." "Unless they are lazy socialist scum." But when your own kids are living in your surburban paradise with you into their 30's, have excellent academic credentials, yet have a hard time finding a job, you blame people on Welfare or Obama, or MM. Give me a break. If what Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh were seeling us was the truth, there would be no need to hear the other side of the story. Some people will just have their blinders on I suppose.
In your world the banker who causes trillions of dollars to be stolen is not a criminal, while the "socialist" protesting with his first amendment right about the broken system and lack of justice is the criminal. Do you morons understand cause and effect? Did bankers one day wake up and forget how to give out home loans, or did they start the mortgage crisis knowing in advance that they would be bailed out? And if you can't figure out why they would do that, you have no right to comment on whether or not MM is right or wrong.
Danny Adams
08. Nov, 2011
Brad: According to the surveys (and one famous book in particular), Republicans only give more to charity if you include church tithing. If you take out tithing, even including religious charities, Democrats give more.
Yancey Purcell
08. Nov, 2011
Michael Moore: American Hero.
Yancey
Richard
07. Nov, 2011
Micheal Moore is a a disingenuous moron. Capitalism is good for the average American. It fosters competition. This makes companies create high quality at low prices. People are rewarded for their achievements. The only down side is the less talented, less intelligent or lazy people get left out. That is why we have welfare. It's only when capitalism is compromised by unfair advantages that there are problems. Can you say "bailout"? Crony capitalism, government bailouts, no bid government contracts etc. are bad for the average American and ARE not pure capitalism. Micheal Moore you are a jerk!
Marvin
07. Nov, 2011
Type your comment here…Moore is just more of same socialist,now globalist trash that has destroyed this once great country!
Dan
07. Nov, 2011
Look at the rats come crawling out to cry foul!.. to hell with them. They have proven your point with their small mindedness.
You are decent human being Mike, which your actions clearly show, I have a lot of respect for you and your excellent work.
Keep the fire burning.
07. Nov, 2011
Exactly — he's down there demanding that his taxes be raised. I'm more with @Marvin and @Richard than ever after the above one-liner. I covered this before. You don't need to pretend to wait for a law to be written with the feet dragging good cop bad cop law makers when you can DONATE directly and IMMEDIATELY by writing a checque. Kanye? How about setting up an ENTIRE fully equipped TOWNSHIP called Kanye in an African nation with that wealth, with you as Mayor for life, than hanging around Hollywood being a mere 'entertainer'? From Sudra to Kshatriya for those inclined o' H/B-other-wooders! The technicalities of spirit apply and those who wish to raise their status have to 'transmute' wealth into power ! Wow plutocrats (even the entertainment types) sure are repetitive and think everyone else is too stupid to see what they are lying about.
Vellach Samie
07. Nov, 2011
Interesting Article.
Mike Moore is preaching the wrong Gospel to the wrong crowd.
America and also most part of the world today is full of Sh*t. Look at all the above comments. You will know what I mean.
People are being murdered everyday by a group of Capitalist Democratic countries against all sense of Humanity in more then 5 countries now. Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Pakistan. etc
And some jokers insist and want us normal people to feel that it is not the fault of Capitalist greed.
Attacking Michael Moore does not change the facts. Why such hatred for this man. Is it because he is too fat?
Steve (Abbass)
07. Nov, 2011
I don't generally have much time for Michael Moore, but this is not such a bad article. The first few comments are typical of the sort of jealous morons who infest the lower strata of the Republican side of the phony left right paradigm the US is locked into.
The article does reek a bit of trying to position himself on the right side of history though and the OWS movement is also morphing into controlled opposition ala the Hegellian dialectic.
Jack
07. Nov, 2011
It’s now official – there’s been no actual shortage of Holocaust Survivors :
Quote from The Holocaust Industry by Norman G. Finkelstein of the City University of New York, published by Verso in the year 2000:
'The Israeli Prime Minister's office recently put the number of "living Holocaust survivors" at nearly a million.' (page 83)
I've checked out the six volumes of Churchill's Second World War and the statement is quite correct – not a single mention of Nazi 'gas chambers,' a 'genocide' of the Jews, or of 'six million' Jewish victims of the war.
Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe is a book of 559 pages; Churchill's Second World War totals 4,448 pages; and De Gaulle's three-volume Mémoires de guerre is 2,054 pages.
In this mass of writing, which altogether totals 7,061 pages (not including the introductory parts), published from 1948 to 1959, one will find no mention either of Nazi 'gas chambers,' a 'genocide' of the Jews, or of 'six million' Jewish victims of the war.
Steve (Abbass)
07. Nov, 2011
Jack you're preaching to the converted here mate, but are you sure this is the right venue for it?
Jack
07. Nov, 2011
Committee for Open Debate of the Holocaust – breaking the power of taboo
http://www.codoh.com/
Hundreds of key documents, including book-length works such as Germar Rudolf’s Foundations, film and video classics like One Third of the Holocaust, and hundreds more books, essays, and photos on every aspect of the Holocaust for on-line seekers of truth around the world.
and
The world’s largest and liveliest revisionist-moderated on-line discussion of the Holocaust. Wide-ranging, freewheeling, daily controversy on virtually every aspect of the Holocaust debate, with emphasis on breaking news and burning issues. We welcome all views expressed with civility and which are on point.
and
America’s most successful revisionist activist, Bradley Smith, writes simply but strongly on how the Holocaust taboo blinds professors, journalists, politicians, and the human rights community to their responsibilities to encourage a free flow of ideas. In this Blog Smith reveals himself in the light of day in a way that his most vociferous critics would not dream of attempting.
Jack
07. Nov, 2011
Dirty Little Secrets - the hidden, awkward origins of World War 2 – the unexpected views of four key diplomats who were close to events
Just consider the following:
· Joseph P. Kennedy, U.S. Ambassador to Britain during the years immediately preceding WW2 was the father of the famous American Kennedy dynasty. James Forrestal the first US Secretary of Defense (1947-1949) quotes him as saying "Chamberlain (the British Prime Minister) stated that America and the world Jews had forced England into the war". (The Forrestal Diaries ed. Millis, Cassell 1952 p129).
· Count Jerzy Potocki, the Polish Ambassador in Washington, in a report to the Polish Foreign Office in January 1939, is quoted approvingly by the highly respected British military historian Major-General JFC Fuller. Concerning public opinion in America he says "Above all, propaganda here is entirely in Jewish hands…when bearing public ignorance in mind, their propaganda is so effective that people have no real knowledge of the true state of affairs in Europe… It is interesting to observe that in this carefully thought-out campaign… no reference at all is made to Soviet Russia. If that country is mentioned, it is referred to in a friendly manner and people are given the impression that Soviet Russia is part of the democratic group of countries… Jewry was able not only to establish a dangerous centre in the New World for the dissemination of hatred and enmity, but it also succeeded in dividing the world into two warlike camps…President Roosevelt has been given the power.. to create huge reserves in armaments for a future war which the Jews are deliberately heading for." (Fuller, JFC: The Decisive Battles of the Western World vol 3 pp 372-374.)
· Hugh Wilson, the American Ambassador in Berlin until 1938, the year before the war broke out, found anti-Semitism in Germany ‘understandable’. This was because before the advent of the Nazis, "the stage, the press, medicine and law [were] crowded with Jews…among the few with money to splurge, a high proportion [were] Jews…the leaders of the Bolshevist movement in Russia, a movement desperately feared in Germany, were Jews. One could feel the spreading resentment and hatred." (Hugh Wilson: Diplomat between the Wars, Longmans 1941, quoted in Leonard Mosley, Lindbergh, Hodder 1976).
· Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin ‘said further that the hostile attitude in Great Britain was the work of Jews and enemies of the Nazis, which was what Hitler thought himself’ (Taylor, AJP: The Origins of the Second World War Penguin 1965, 1987 etc p 324).
Etc etc etc etc http://www.rense.com/general92/dirty.htm
Frank
08. Nov, 2011
Are you kidding Mike? You are a worthless piece of horse shit. Your fat and ugly and rich. Your the 1% that OWS is talking about. The only good thing that could happen to you, is having a masive heart attack. Your a sheep in Wolf's clothing.
yancey.purcell
08. Nov, 2011
Dear Pal:
Thank you for being stupid.
I like taking your money in the stock market.
Yancey.
A letter from Michael Moore | SHOAH
09. Nov, 2011
[...] “Three million dollars!” I proudly exclaimed. A cheer went up from the union guys surrounding me. It was absolutely unheard of for one of us in the working class of Flint (or anywhere) to receive such a sum of money unless one of us had either robbed a bank or, by luck, won the Michigan lottery. On that sunny November day in 1989, it was like I had won the lottery — and the people I had lived and struggled with in Michigan were thrilled with my success. It was like, one of us hadmade it, one of us finally had good fortune smile upon us. The day was filled with high-fives and “Way-ta-go Mike!”s. When you are from the working class you root for each other, and when one of you does well, the others are beaming with pride — not just for that one person’s success, but for the fact that the team had somehow won, beating the system that was brutal and unforgiving and which ran a game that was rigged against us. [...]