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‘Where to Invade Next’
Michael Moore is an American author and the director of the film ‘Where to Invade Next.’ The documentary aims to point out the social, economic, and political activities in different countries compared to the United States of America. Therefore, Moore visits other countries like Germany, Norway, France, Tunisia, Portugal, and Italy, to monitor their way of living and proposes America’s good aspects to adopt. Education, leadership structure, and workers’ benefits are some of the subjects that Moore observes. Therefore, understanding Moore’s documentary entails explaining two countries’ underlying values compared to America and defining different concepts like culture, symbols, and norms.
The documentary film was produced in the United States and released in the year 2015. Furthermore, it runs for 120minutes. Michael Moore visits nine countries and explains their values. It has also been translated into different languages like Arabic, English, French, Norwegian Finnish, Portuguese, and German. However, only two countries that Michael Moore visited will be selected for clarity purposes, and their values discussed. Therefore, the two countries chosen to examine their values are France and Portugal. Michael Moore has pointed out the political, economic activities in the countries mentioned earlier. Thus, some of the countries’ issues include school life in France and Death punishment in Portugal. Therefore, analyzing the values of different countries by Michael Moore gives some exposure because the readers and watchers of the film can understand how things are done differently in other countries.
French and Portuguese Values Compared to the United States of America
There are values and beliefs in every society, and most people believe that they have the same meaning. However, that is not the case because belief is the society’s convictions that members in a particular community consider being true. Besides, Values are cultural standards set in culture to determine what is right and wrong. Therefore, values are mostly used to judge society members because a rotten company results from false values and a good deal results in a good society. Thus, the following are some of the costs in France and Portugal.
In France, Michael Moore focuses on discussing the theme of education. Hence, he addresses the school meals and sex education in the film. School lunch or school meals refers to the meals served to the students and teachers while in school. Therefore, Moore puts much focus on school meals served to students (Beck, 201).
Michael Moore gives credit to French school meals. He intimates that in France, meal breaks are treated like another class subject. Hence, students are served a balanced diet and given enough time to eat. Furthermore, in France, good meals are in low schools and schools in affluent neighborhoods compared to the United States, where the contrary happens. Therefore, Moore intimates that it is high time for Americans to focus on feeding students with balanced diets, which influences good health. Moore shows how American students feed on pizza and Coca-Cola drinks, which are unhealthy.
Sex education is another value addressed by Michael Moore about France. Therefore, sex education is defined as the education given to individuals in society on human sexuality matters. Human sexuality involves safe sex, sex abstinence, responsibility, human sex anatomy, and emotional relationships. Therefore, the film ‘Where to Invade Next” addresses how the values as mentioned earlier are practiced in France. Furthermore, Michael Moore gives a comparison of sex education in France and the United States.
The rate of teen pregnancies in France is very minimal compared to the United States. Therefore, it implies that France has a better sex education given to the students than the United States (Beck 202). The French education system has a good curriculum that ensures that students are adequately educated about sexuality education. Furthermore, the French government encourages parents to take care of their children while at home by taking them through sex education. Hence, the French government’s schools’ measures have reduced the rate of sexual disease transmission and unwanted pregnancies. However, in the United States of America, education is a little bit relaxed. Therefore, the quality of early pregnancies is high among students.
In Portugal, Michael Moore focuses on public holidays like Mayday. Furthermore, the death penalty and the Portuguese drug policy. Therefore, Mayday is a public holiday in Portugal celebrated on the first Monday of May. It is aimed at showing the cultural diversities in Portugal. Thus, it gives different communities room to showcase their culture. Besides, the day is meant to celebrate workers in the country. Therefore, it is similar to Labor Day. Thus, the Portuguese use the day to protect society from evil in the future (Beck 202). The United States also use the day to celebrate its workers. Therefore, it is also known as Mayday in the United States. However, in the United States, the day is not used to celebrate different cultural diversities. Hence, Michael Moore proposes that America should also use the day to celebrate its culture.
In Portugal, a drug policy discourages the use of needles to inject drugs into the body. The system was put in place after it was realized half of HIV cases were caused by sharing needles to inject drugs into the body. Therefore, it is against the law in Portugal to inject drugs into the body. However, in the United States, it is legal to inject drugs into the body. Hence, HIV is highly transmitted through drug injection.
Furthermore, Portugal is known for championing the abolishment of capital punishment. Hence, Moore intimates that capital punishment is illegal in Portugal. However, in the United States, death sentencing is legal. Therefore, Michael Moore tries to put across the issue to be abolished in the United States.
Definition of Different Concepts Like Culture, Symbols, and Norms.
Material culture and non-material culture are the two types of culture. Material culture is defined as the belief of a society based on people’s objects in the community. However, non-material culture is a type of culture based on thoughts that come together to form culture. Therefore, non-material culture does not include physical objects in society (Beck 203). Cars, homes, and trees are some of the examples of material culture.
Furthermore, gestures, signals, signs, and words are symbols. Hence, symbols are defined as characters that represent others. Therefore, symbols exist for a purpose and should never be taken for granted. Moreover, norms are used to describe individuals’ behavior based on what the company defines as bad or good characters. An excellent example of a model includes the celebration of Mayday in Portugal and the United States. Therefore, formal norms are established rules in society. However, informal means are not based on culture because there is no strictness put in place.
There are several values highlighted by Michael Moore. Therefore, out of the pointed-out costs, the abolition of capital punishment is the first value that should be implemented in the United States of America. Death punishment is against human rights and should be abolished in the United States. The American judicial system should find other methods of punishing offenders. Thus, just like Portugal, death punishment should be abolished because of the following reasons.
Capital punishment can lead to the demise of innocent people in society because a crime suspect is not given a chance to appeal against a court’s decision. In most cases, someone can be an appeal for being innocent, even after being sentenced to prison (Nicola and Soskice 53). Therefore, if one succeeds in the appeal case and proven innocent, then the accused person will be a free man. However, it is impossible to appeal after the court has decided due to death sentencing. Therefore, the American government has imposed death punishment on innocent people because there is no going back after execution.
States without death punishment are better in terms of crime rate than other countries like the United States that impose the death penalty on criminals. According to the film ‘Where to Invade Next,’ death punishment is illegal in Portugal. However, it has a low criminal record compared to America. Therefore, it is evident that death punishment creates more mess in society. Besides, the cost of capital punishment prosecution is higher than in other cases (Nicola and Soskice 53). The State of Oklahoma was examined, and it showed that the cost of capital punishment prosecution is three times higher than in other cases. Therefore, abolishing capital in the United States also saves the economy. Thus, the death penalty has adverse effects on both the State and the citizens.
Conclusion
Cultural relativism is a theory that condemns the judging of other people’s cultures. It clearly states that whether a culture is terrible, sound, or unique should not be judged. However, the theory emphasizes encouraging people to learn about other people’s cultures instead of judging. Therefore, cultural relativism is essential because it promotes cultural diversity and understanding of different cultures. Hence, it leaves no room for imperialists and their imperialistic tendencies because society members are deeply rooted in their culture. In conclusion, based on the relativism theory, it is unfair for Michael Moore to judge American society by standards of other cultures.
Work Cited
Beck, Bernard. “Gulliver’s Travels: Michael Moore the Explorer in Who to Invade Next.” Multicultural Perspectives 18.4 (2016): 202-205.
Lacey, Nicola, and David Soskice. “American exceptionalism in crime, punishment, and disadvantage.” American exceptionalism in crime and punishment 53 (2017).