I Just Saw Michael Moore's "Sicko", and I Can Answer His Question

[Yavin4]

In the film, Moore asks the question, "What kind of nation are we"? I have the answer: We are a nation of savages. We are primitive and not as civilized as the Candians, the British, and the French.

[Wiccan Warrior]

1. That and we are cowards that are afraid to stand up to our Government

we sit at home and complain and shiver at the thought of them hearing us shhhhhh....

[Mythsaje]

2. Not me...

Let 'em listen. Or read. Even if they do have to move their lips to do it.

Like Mark Twain and Will Rogers before me, I'm just doing my job.

If they don't like it, tough cookies.

[opiate69]

8. Fuckin' A, Saje!

:toast:

[Johonny]

12. I think out Government is the coward

They're the ones that time and time again roll over for the Corporation that turn around and screw the country. Our Government is too afraid to ask too much of it's citizens and too afraid to demand loyalty from it's heavily subsidized industry. They're the cowards.

[Selatius]

16. I think there's more than enough to also call the US population cowardly in general

The government is ultimately just a tool of raw force. It serves whoever wishes to exert influence over government. If the American people want to believe that they live in a representative republic, then they must also accept the notion that ultimate responsibility for the government's actions rests with the people themselves. The choice to live in freedom or tyranny always belongs to the people. The government has no right to take that choice away no matter how tyrannical it may become.

To be sure, there are many people who are not cowardly in the face of social injustice and tyranny. There are many who do take a stand and fight for the principles of freedom and equality. They number in the millions, but there are so many more who are passive if not downright hostile to those ideals, and that's reflected in the people in Congress people voted for.

FDR said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Too many have allowed fear to dominate their way of life. They vote based on fear: Fear of the gay people, fear of change, fear of minorities, the fear of God.

[BlackHawk706867]

3. I agree with what you said, but it's more than that... The biggest problem is...

being so uninformed as to what goes on in your own country and the world as a whole... Most Americans don't have a clue as to what is happening in their own country, (Never mind the rest of the world around them). I honestly mean this with all due respect, and not ragging on anyone as persay... But shit, even we dumb ass Canadians would never tolerate our elected officials doing what they are doing in the US.... DAMN...

ww

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. After my first trip to Europe I considered the US Provincial but as time goes on,

I agree with you totally.

[CoffeeCat]

5. I totally agree with you...

"savages" is a good word to describe what we have become.

I once asked a very wise person why bad things happen in this world---why people
commit crimes, hurt children, neglect the poor, etc.

Her answer was, "Human beings are still evolving as a species. We've come a long
way, but we have a long way to go".

This wise person said this to me more than five years ago. However, just last week,
I was thinking about her comments, and I've sadly come to the conclusion that the
people in the United States are devolving. With the sociopaths and psychopaths
at the helm, our nation is deteriorating, and we are becoming more "savage"--as
you described. We are more primitive.

People in this country are turned inward and focused on materialism. Where is our
sense of curiosity and exploration? We're more concerned about our landscaping
and what to buy next at Pottery Barn. Consumerism has stunted people and left people
superficial, insecure and hyper-competitive when it comes to material goods. The
end result is less deep self examination and altruism.

I really weep for our society. It's not going to take the world very long to catch
on to what a bunch of thugs this nation has bred. We are slowly becoming the joke
of the world, and it's not too long before the world begins detesting us.

The consequences of this will be devastating.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. The people at the top set the tone

in any group. I have observed this in schools, churches, companies, and countries.

The trouble with America began with 8 years of Reaganism, followed by 4 years of Bush, Sr., follwed by 8 years of Clinton, who partly bought into the Repubiclanite "pro-business" ideology and actually enabled some of their predations, followed by 6 years so far of Bush, jr.

An entire generation has grown up with "free" market, pro-militaristic ideology, i.e. pre-fascism. For 25 years, we've been fed a steady diet of entertainment media that encourage mindlessness, lured into suburbs that offer no sense of community except the fundie megachurches, and beset by "news" media that are nothing but cheerleaders for the government's military adventures and shills for the corporations. Schools have become more narrowly focused on job skills.

We're told that America is the greatest country in the world and that the French and other Europeans are either despicable or ridiculous. We're told constant lies about other countries, whch most Americans have no choice but to accept, since they've never traveled abroad.

Oh, "the truth is out there" if you look for it, but Americans have been conditioned to devote their mental energy to figuring out which sports teams have the best chance in the playoffs or debating the fine points of how much jail time Paris Hilton should have served or voting the fate of all those mediocre singers on American Idol that there's not enough room left over for learning what's really going on in the world. That's if they have enough time left over from their long work hours.

[Unreconstructed Lib]

6. We're a nation hijacked by heartless, fascist profiteers but we're not all savages.

:)

[Yavin4]

9. No, It's Not The Profiteers. It's Us.

Britain, Canada, and France have rich and powerful assholes just like us. The difference is in the populace. People in other industrialized nations don't cheer going to war like we do. When increased in spending on healthcare and education are brought us as issues, we cry and scream about our raising our taxes, but when it comes to war, we cannot spend the money fast enough. A majority of us believe in an invisible man in the sky, and any presidential candidate who doesn't believe the same is automatically disqualified from the race.

Look at our young people, our culture, our entertainment. Look at us. We're overly concerned with instant gratification and instant pleasure. We'll camp out over night to buy the shiny new iPhone, but we won't dare to protest voter fraud in 2000 and 2004.

We are a backwards, primitive, savage culture, and we don't care one bit about our fellow man. The Profiteers know this and just take advantage of us financially.

[BlackHawk706867]

10. Damn... Finally someone that gets it! This is actually why the US has a problem...

I don't know how many suffered thru Vietnam, (And I don't mean just fighting in the war) I mean just being there listening to the dead US soldiers coming home and of course the Vietnamese deaths as well... But here we are again, and have been since 2003, for what? I ask you! For what? So someone by the name of George W Bush can appease George H W Bush's so called hit by Saddam Husein ? (Or Possibly Iraq oil)

This shit has to stop, and now... Please, Please get your shit together and challenge this thugs, now...

ww

[Unreconstructed Lib]

11. I understand what you're saying.

But, speaking for myself, I've voted consistently in favor of every liberal, social justice, and equality candidate and issue, including those that have included raising taxes for the greater good, since I was old enough to cast my first vote.

I've walked my precinct to educate voters, marched at home and in cities across the country--from San Francisco to Chicago, to Washington, DC--written letters to editors, and badgered my representatives. I buy blue, support unions, and boycott Walmart, despite the fact that I could probably save hundredes of dollars a year, if I shopped there.

I've raised my children to think for themselves and they're liberals, as well. And, to a person, every member of my immediate family supports single payer, universal health care.

With all due respect, I'm not one of the "we" in your post.

[Yavin4]

14. I Understand What You're Saying As Well

Within a nation of primitives like us, there are civilized people like yourself. Conversely within France, Canada, and Great Britain, there are savages amongst the civilized people.

The overall point is what is the majority of the people like, and the majority of the people of the U.S. are savages, plain and simple. It may not describe you, your family, or DUers, but it does describe the majority of the people of the U.S.

We celebrate and enjoy wars. We belittle presidential candidates if they're smart. No presidential candidate could even be seriously considered for office unless they affirm that they believe in an invisible man in the sky. A number of Republican presidential candidates do not believe in evolution. These are the hallmarks of an uncivilized, primitive, and backwards nation.

I predict that the U.S. will be the first first-world nation to slip to third-world status within a few years. In fact, the only thing preventing that from happening is that China and Saudi Arabia keep buying our debt.

[Unreconstructed Lib]

21. I hate to think that any part of your observation is accurate.

But I'm too much of a realist to not observe the same things. This nation is being driven into the ground by, among other influences, a culture of jingoistic chest-thumping. Someone had a thread the other day about how Bush's leadership has fostered an even more violence-prone and violence-permissive permissive society. It's nearly palpable. We're saturated in it.

And I think the twin to violence is greed. I want it, I'm going to take it, and f*** you, if you don't like it. Whether it's a piece of the road or a share of the market, it's all the same.

[ThatsMyBarack]

19. Welcome to DU, Unreconstructed Lib!

:hi: :patriot: Gosh, that's the 3rd DU newbie I've welcomed today. Keep 'em comin! :thumbsup:

[Unreconstructed Lib]

22. Thanks for the welcome.

:hi:

[texpatriot2004]

7. I saw it last week and thought we are a nation run by greed and

and by the greedy. We are a nation of "bottom line" thinkers who are selfish and self-centered. We are a nation without a conscience otherwise we would not have let it go on this long.

The only positive thought I had was we are a nation of people who descended from people of great courage and vision. It is within us to keep what was given to us by our forefathers. Maybe someday we too will have courage and vision.

But for now, we don't want to be bothered, we want to do what we want when we want and to look after ourselves only.

I heard a story once about heaven and hell. In hell there was a huge banquet table and on the table was a wonderful feast. People sat all around the table and they were starving to death because they were unable to feed themselves because they had these long utensils strapped to their hands; they couldn't get any of the food in their mouths. In heaven there was the same huge banquet table with people sitting all around it, on the table was a wonderful feast, in heaven the people were feeding each other.

MM is right, in the end, sink or swim, we are all in the same boat.

I was personally appalled by the scare tactics used by the stupid white men about health care. If, way back then when Hillary first started working for a solution they would have done something to fix our system we would be so much better off but all they could do was blabber their irrational fears about socialism and how doctors would go broke and people would not become doctors and citizens wouldn't be able to choose their doctors...yada, yada, yada.

Which reminds me, how stupid we are as a nation, how did we devolve so? How are we the only industrialized nation not to have a universal, single payer system?

BTW I really liked the way the French were living.

[Yavin4]

15. I Can Answer Your Questions

"How are we the only industrialized nation not to have a universal, single payer system?"

Because, it's more important to a majority of Americans that their candidates for office affirm that they believe in an invisible man in the sky more so that they have a plan for universal healthcare.

IOW, the candidate who has a plan to cover all people, no matter if they could pay or not but who does not believe in God, will lose in a landslide to a candidate who believes in God and does not want to change the healthcare system at all.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

13. And at least one noticeable ...

...difference between the U.S. and these other nations is that their collective citizenries are quite well educated relative to ours, making them far less easy to dupe/manipulate. They wouldn't stand for the dumbed down dog and pony show our MSM spoon feeds us every day. What passes for news reporting and journalism here would get laughed out of those countries.

[Selatius]

17. It wouldn't get laughed out. It would be banned. Most of them actually enforce their anti-trust laws

Our government doesn't. The result is corporate consolidation in many markets, including the market for news.

[itcfish]

18. and Not As "Civilized"

or humane as the rest of the industrialized world. But we are partners with South Africa on the humanity level. LOL Sad.