A perspective from the documentary "Sicko" by Michael Moore: Whats going on with our U.S healthcare industry? Part 2

                          

    In our own history we have experienced many forms of social isolation ranging from Anti-Irish, Catholic, and Jewish sentiments endorsed during our immigration history. To the encampment of the Japanese during WWII. While in modern times, the isolation is taking shape through an Anti-Hispanic movement associated with causing an alleged "immigration problem", an Anti-African American movement where "black lives don't matter" and in the perceived threat of Muslims since the events of 9/11. These are all examples of social isolation that we experience in the form of negative nationalism. The aim of negative nationalism is the sense of unity gained through uniting against a perceived enemy, which utilizes the irrationality of the nation. If we are distracted by hating each other or fearing each other. We aren’t paying attention to larger issues.  

    In the example of fear of Muslims, the media portrays Islamic radicals as being an accurate depiction of all Muslims and Islamic beliefs. They try to communicate that violence of Jihad as expressed by Islamic extremists, is a major building block of the Islamic faith and therefore all Muslims are terrorists and are to be feared. This is said through the voices of, Caucasian Christian politicians, who have a vested interest in the oil rich countries of the Middle East where there is a concentrated population of Muslims. Meanwhile, most Americans do not realize that religion is not at all the reason for wanting to start war in the Middle East, nor is terrorism or nuclear threats. What truly upset our government and started the war in the Middle East is when Saddam Hussein came into power. 

    He overthrew the previous dictator who gave the U.S low oil prices. Which is the hidden reality of why we are at war in the Middle East. It has nothing to do with the “perceived” nuclear threat, or the argument that we want to "democratize" Middle Eastern countries to give those people rights. The actuality of the situation is that we want to put a leader in place that will meet the best interests of the United States. So to gain the approval of the American people, we pushed the idea that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, to the media. This is a way in which the "Big Brother" prevents the masses from having “reality based perceptions and decisions”, and is controlled through the Ministry of truth. It is through this construed reality that the party maintains support and control. This is not only restricted to our view of current events, but also further skews our perceptions of history.  

    However, as explained earlier, often to get the people to agree and endorse decisions, the government will alter the truth or frame information in a particular way. This is particularly the case in times of war. Some people do not agree with war because in reality they know we just want resources. So the government ignores, we the people, and says "let’s go in and take the resources we need and cover it up by means of fear." This nation is illogical and emotionally driven, that relates more to ideals and feelings. We did not tell the U.S people that we went to war in Vietnam because we needed to help the French maintain control over Vietnamese colonies. So that, in turn, the French could use resources gained to meet our goals. We claimed that it was a war based on the “evils” of Communism. The story is similar for the Cold War. Now, we use the fear of “terrorism”, Islam, and the “threat of Nuclear weapons” to justify the ongoing war in the Middle East.   

    Our country is one aimed at production, and efficiency. This sort of system is much like Weber’s system of bureaucracy. In a Bureaucracy, Oligarchy (a government run by a small group of powerful individuals) is the form of authority used. Whereas in a Democracy (or more accurately, Democratic-republic), you elect officials to represent you. However, you can only run for a position, and reasonably stand a chance of being elected if you have the money to do so. So I ask you this: Is this really Democracy we are living in? To end this I will leave you with a quote from the movie to reflect upon:     

“If you have power, you use it to meet the needs of you and your community and this is the idea of choice that the capital talks about all the time. If you have a choice, choice depends on the freedoms you choose. If you’re shackled with debt, you don’t have the freedom to choose. It seems like it benefits the system if the average working person is shackled. People in debt become hopeless, and hopeless people don’t vote. If the poor turned out to vote, and voted for people that represented their interests, it would be a real democratic revolution. So they (the government) don’t want it to happen, so they keep people hopeless and pessimistic. There are 2 ways in which people are controlled. 1. Frighten people 2. Demoralized people. An educated, healthy, confident nation is harder to govern. They don’t want people to be educated, healthy and confident because, they would get out of control. The top 1% of the population control 80% of the world’s wealth, it’s amazing they (the people) put up with it. But they are poor, they’re demoralized, they’re frightened, so they think the safest thing to do is to take orders and hope for the best.”    

Part 2/2