Saturday, June 26, 2004
(2:29 AM) | Anonymous:
The Eschaton has already occurred: Or, some thoughts about Fahrenheit 9/11
Of course there are all the things one expects from a good Michael Moore movie, some ironic jokes, well thought out editing that does help the emotions along, a certain sense of determination and I can't talk about those because movies is not my specialization here at the Weblog.I can talk about how I don't do well when I see violence, but you don't want to hear about me. They looked up on September 11th, the people that Moore wanted us to see instead of the buildings since these very same buildings have ceased to mean suffering he shows us suffering. They looked up in horror as their God died and when the papers from the two towers float to the ground one is reminded, if they take a second to think, that those papers hold banal information, information that someone worked on as bored as you are at your job. Those papers were holding that building up and they were created by bored people. Others looked up at them and it looked as if they had finally seen something truly horrible, it looked, also, like a praise and worship service.
The bombs then dropped on Iraq and I see another person looking up. An old woman, there were old women in New York City as well, who has just lost her house and five relatives. She is weeping, and old women wept in New York City as well, as she cries out that her only hope is in God. She doesn't understand why they were attacked, they were civilians and she doesn't understand where God is. "Where are you God?" she cries out at least twice after she calls on God to destroy our houses. You can't be angry with her, you can't blame her for calling on God to destroy us and there may even be a part of you that cries out for the same. We who have lived through the American church, we too wonder where God is and if God is, or bracketing that wonder what the thought of God causes our actions to be. Is it not [God] who has given Bush such resolve and which gave the terrorists such resolve and which gives many of those poor bastards who got tricked into thinking the United States Army would be a good place to spend a couple years solace? None of this can dry this women's tears and nothing well for we have robbed her of her home and her relatives through our tax dollars and our lack of actually overthrowing the government through peaceful means, whether that means voting or civil disobedience we have done none of it.
There is more of course but these scenes and the thoughts that came with them stand out at the moment. There are points during the movie where I felt like I felt when I was twelve years old and I was gripped by the spirit of desire. I was in a church service listening to the preacher scream, "Burn it down! Burn down the church if it brings more people in!" and I remember looking over at a kid named John who had made fun of me relentlessly because, admittedly, I was pretty fucking annoying. I suddenly began to ball as the altars were open and people, like sheep, began to flock to them. I began to ball as the second verse was song and I told my mother that I knew that John didn't mean it and that he was really a nice guy. The grief I felt at that moment came from nowhere and the desire to love through that grief followed. There were parts in this movie where I wished I could let my desire go so I could revert to that innocent child again.
