Posthuman Blues

Something I'm extremely goddamned sick of: self-righteous movie-goers who extoll the brilliance of "documentary" films like "Supersize Me" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," lazy efforts at pseudojournalism that play it safe by telling us things we already know in such a way as to seem somehow subversive or revelatory.

"Supersize Me" reveals -- gasp! -- that a steady diet of McDonald's hamburgers leads to health problems and weight gain; "Fahrenheit" exposes George W. Bush as a crooked, lying bastard.

Big surprises. Wow. I never knew.

Of course McDonald's food is unhealthy, and it's equally obvious that, given the chance, McDonald's would attempt to obscure the fact. Similarly, every thinking person knows -- on some level, at least -- that Bush is a fraud; "Fahrenheit 9/11" should be perceived in the context of light infotainment instead as some sort of authentic Statement.

All of this would be harmless enough if debilitating hidden agendas weren't studiously unnoted in favor of Celluloid treatises on french fries. I'd like to see a film-maker attempt to make sense of the Congressional "black budget," or reveal the monstrous manner in which the US "news" media avoids stories dealing with pollution, ecology and global warming. But of course we won't be viewing any of that. Or, for that matter, reading about it. Best to stick to easier targets.

I find it deeply troubling that fluff like Michael Moore's "expose" becomes the stuff of actual public controversy. Far too many Americans profess concern about the fate of their environment, or at least the fate of their tax-dollars. But they'd rather not expend any actual thought, and this is where limp, pretentious films like "Fahrenheit 9/11" come in so handy. They provide an ersatz sense of worldliness by systematically confirming pre-existing fears. It's the best of both worlds: a smug sense of "I told you so" righteousness with none of the headache, questioning or moral conundrum that defines real problems.

But it's the fears we're not so conscious of that are doing us in. And we are ignoring them.