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Stupid White Men - A Book Review

© Thomas James Martin

There have been a number of excellent books published in the last couple of years purporting to analyze the socio-political landscape of the United States. I admire brilliant investigative journalist Greg Palast's, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, for it's deep look into the sinister, pervasive influence of big business on the current political agenda. Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America is a sensitive portrayal of poverty and its ramifications in American society by a journalist who actually attempted to live (marginally at best) on minimum wage jobs in various American cities.

However, Stupid White Men by Michael Moore, who is also also known for his guerilla film-making (The Awful Truth and Roger and Me), has to be one of the most screamingly funny, incisive looks at the state of the country since the so-called "grownups" (Bush and company) took over, and the Democrats started nodding off in the corridors of power. In the course of the book he also manages to offend just about everyone not just politicians. His targets include but are not limited to racists, white men, corporate bottom feeders, Southerners, Fundamentalists, Naderites, Yugoslavians, Sno Cones (facing extinction), Stuff Inside Wax Lips (industrial waste), and the Village Idiot, otherwise known as the title of the chapter called, "Idiot Nation."

Yet, the book is more than satire of a high order. It is a critical appraisal of the current state of the nation, its people, its leaders, and its place as a leader among the nations of the world. For all his brilliant humor, his look at a contemporary society heading into God-only-knows-what future of genetic engineering, perplexing cyberspace, increasing corporate control over our lives and a plutocratic government becoming less and less in touch with the people it governs is chilling.

That HarperCollins published a book so critical of the Bush Administration and its associated right wing zealotry and corporate concerns in the aftermath of 9/11, is a testament to the courage of the publisher, and indicates that at least some remnants of freedom of the press still exist in the this country. Still, the book had a rocky road to publication and came close to being suppressed. In the middle of its first press run in September of last year, Moore was told that he would need to revise some of the material critical of Bush, as the publisher felt that the "People" did not want to see their President in a critical light, but as a hero.