Thursday, September 27, 2012

who is the modern gadfly?

Who fills the void left by Socrates? Who asks the hard questions that seek to uncover the truth? Who points out the phonies?
Some would say that filmmakers like Michael Moore do this. The people that go into the situations that Moore goes into and ask the questions that Moore does, must have their work taken with a grain of salt. The bias of these filmmakers and writers in this vein all approach their subjects with a bias that can't be ignored, and really shouldn't because they came at the piece trying to convince people of a problem and how that problem can be solved. Socrates was biased, as all people are, but his method of questioning is imitated with the best work of Michael Moore. In "Bowling for Columbine" he goes after gun-toting America by just asking questions to these people about why they have guns and why they feel they should/deserve/need to have them. Sure there are loaded questions and leading questions that the person answering gets wise to but the person is made more foolish by saying "how dare you ask me that!" in answer to a question that simply shows this person with full mental faculties at his disposal why he is logically wrong. In the best and most calm and collected form, Michael Moore is the modern gadfly.

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