Downsize This!: Random Threats from an Unarmed American [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Dieser Titel ist in englischer Sprache
Wer hätte gedacht, dass inmitten des Wirtschaftsaufschwungs in den USA der neunziger Jahre mit seiner Aktien-Euphorie und Dow-Jones-Höhenflügen ein Buch zum Bestseller werden würde, welches die andere Seite des Wirtschaftsbooms und des American Dream schonungslos und mit ätzender Kritik unter die Lupe nimmt? Und doch ist dies mit Downsize This! gelungen. Hier spricht der (weiße) Durchschnittsamerikaner, der trotz steigender Gewinne seines Unternehmens zum Wohle des Shareholder-Value geopfert wird.

Moore rechnet mit der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Elite der USA ab. Politiker -- egal, ob Republikaner oder Demokraten -- sind korrupt, ihr Personal und ihre Programme austauschbar. Eine solche Diagnose mag vielleicht nicht überraschen, Moore gelingt es jedoch, seine Erkenntnis anhand origineller Beispiele zu verifizieren. So sind sich rechtskonservative Republikaner nicht zu schade, Wahlkampfspenden anzunehmen, die von Abtreibungsbefürwortern oder Bürgerrechtsinitiativen für die Gleichstellung Homosexueller stammen. Da wundert es nicht, dass eine desillusionierte Bevölkerung bei Präsidentschaftswahlen kaum noch von ihrem Stimmrecht Gebrauch macht. Doch Moore weiß Abhilfe: Warum statt Wahlen nicht einfach Monster-Truck-Rennen veranstalten? Die Präsidentschaftskandidaten treten in großen, drei Stockwerke hohen Trucks mit Namen wie "Killer Bigfoot" gegeneinander an. Wer gewinnt, wird Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. Das geht schnell, ist leicht durchführbar und garantiert hohe Aufmerksamkeit beim Publikum.

Auch die Wirtschaftsbosse der großen Unternehmen kriegen ihr Fett weg. Wie unverschämt muss man sein, um einerseits vehement Sozialleistungen für Arbeitslose als Schmarotzertum zu attackieren, andererseits jedoch lauthals nach Subventionen und Steuererleichtungen zu rufen, wenn sie ihr Unternehmen an den Rand des Ruins treiben?

Michael Moore nimmt kein Blatt vor den Mund. Seine Angriffe gegen das Establishment sind direkt, polemisch und gnadenlos einseitig. Wer die feine Ironie sucht oder meint, zwischen den Zeilen lesen zu müssen, der mag enttäuscht sein. Hier findet kein akademisch abgehobenes, genüssliches Sezieren des wirtschaftspolitischen Geschehens statt. Vielmehr ist dieses Buch der Aufschrei eines Mannes, der an den Verhältnissen leidet und nicht mitansehen kann, wie eine verknöcherte, saturierte und egoistische Elite traditionelle amerikanische Werte wie Gemeinschaft und Solidarität zugunsten von Wahlerfolg oder Shareholder-Value bedenkenlos opfert.

Auch mit verschnörkelten Wortspielereien hält Moore sich nicht auf. Er ist ein "right-in-your-face"-Satiriker, der sich vor derben Ausdrücken nicht scheut. Und auch wenn man seine Sicht der Dinge nach der ersten Glosse zu kennen meint, so lohnt sich das Weiterlesen auf jeden Fall. Moore zählt anhand von Zeitungsmeldungen und Statistiken eins und eins zusammen und schafft es, globale und komplex erscheinende Phänomene auf seine amerikanisch-pragmatische Art zusammenzufassen.

Downsize This! ist somit ein Buch für alle, die sich davon überzeugen möchten, dass es auch in den USA eine lebendige und humoristische Gesellschaftskritik gibt. Das Buch liest sich flüssig und ist für den etwas fortgeschrittenen Leser englischsprachiger Literatur leicht und mit Gewinn zu lesen. --Patrick Glaser

Who says the left wing doesn't have a sense of humour? Maybe it doesn't, but in Downsize This! documentarian Michael Moore certainly does. Moore's politics are rabidly liberal, populist and anti-big business--about what you'd expect from the former editor of Mother Jones. While this restricts his audience to those on the left side of the aisle, Downsize This! will be a chance to point and laugh hysterically (if ruefully) at the clique of rich white guys who run everything.

Moore is at his best as a prankster, whether it's trying to see if Pat Buchanan will take a campaign donation from the John Wayne Gacy Fan Club (yes) or whether he can have Bob Dornan committed to an insane asylum because of his bizarre behaviour (no, but it was close). Moore is one of America's sharpest satirists, and Downsize This! makes one wish he would write a "Sorry State of the Union" every year. But only if it doesn't cut into his moviemaking--that's too big a price to pay. --Michael Gerber, Amazon.com -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Who says the left wing doesn't have a sense of humor? Maybe it doesn't, but documentarian Michael Moore sure does--Exhibit A was Roger & Me; B was the ill-fated TV Nation; and C is 1997's print skirmish Downsize This! Moore's politics are rabidly liberal, populist, and anti-big business--about what you'd expect from the former editor of Mother Jones. While this restricts his audience to Americans on the left side of the aisle, for them Downsize This! will be a chance to point and laugh hysterically (if ruefully) at the clique of rich white guys who run everything.

Moore is at his best as a prankster, whether it's trying to see if Pat Buchanan will take a campaign donation from the John Wayne Gacy Fan Club (yes) or whether he can have Bob Dornan committed to an insane asylum based on his bizarre behavior (no, but it was close). Moore is one of our sharpest satirists, and Downsize This! makes one wish he would write a "Sorry State of the Union" every year. But only if it doesn't cut into his moviemaking--that's too big a price to pay. --Michael Gerber

If you don't know Michael Moore, you should. The creator of Roger and Me and TV Nation has built his career on giving the raspberry to corporate fat cats, and this book will add to his considerable reputation. He tackles everyone here--Democrats, Republicans, Germany, General Motors--and wrestles them to the ground. About the only one who doesn't get thoroughly dissed is O. J., whom Moore claims is far too rich to bother killing anyone. Among the book's stellar moments: the introduction of his "big welfare mamas" --that is, "tax-cheating, job-exporting, environment-destroying corporations that are already posting record profits" ; his letters to Norway and the Netherlands asking for foreign aid for America's poor; and his poignant support of those countless billions of abandoned sperm, mindlessly disposed of in a convenient Kleenex. Moore's wit is as dry as a martini and as outrageous as, well . . . a hugely profitable company laying off thousands of workers. This is a book that makes you think as hard as you laugh. Ilene Cooper -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

The man behind the popular documentary Roger and Me and the short-lived series TV Nation takes a stab at authorship--and at every conservative sacred cow available. Moore brings a uniformly predictable lefty perspective to a series of topics, including corporate downsizing of workforces, Bill Clinton's weakness in opposing the right wing, Congress's craven subjugation to special interests, NAFTA, white racism, anti-feminist hysteria, homophobia, and the demonization of welfare recipients. As in his film and video work, Moore is at his best when he leads the fuzzy-minded to the logical conclusions of their thought processes, for example, getting an anti-abortion activist to agree that male masturbation is a serious moral issue because life actually begins with the individual sperm. There is a good deal of useful political information spread through the book, including the names and deeds of a number of corporate executives and lobbyists whose power is seldom treated as critically as it should be by journalists. The humor is hit-and-miss, though, and readers who don't seethe along with Moore in his populist rage are likely to find the book as a whole tiresome. There's also a considerable amount of the nastiness that liberals decry among today's conservative polemicists, the low point being a suggestion to Bob Dole that he replace the pen with which he keeps his disabled right hand from closing in on itself with something more appropriate, such as a coathanger to symbolize his views on abortion. Moore might consider, as he passes judgment on the hypocrisy of our time, that a writer who can muse on his frequent exasperation with limousine drivers should refer to the working class as something other than ``we.'' (line drawings; b&w photos; map, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Author and reader Moore, better known for his film Roger & Me (1989) and the television series TV Nation, manages to offend just about everyone in this sarcastic look at present-day America. As timely as today's headlines, Moore's attacks on downsizing, NAFTA, corporate greed, industrial tax abatement, welfare, race relations, the Clintons, the Doles, and Perot are insightful and perhaps inciting. For example, why shouldn't nonwhite Angelinos burn Beverly Hills, he posits, in commemoration of the riots of several years ago? Moore's view of life in these United States is humorous, of course, but not exactly funny. The twin sources of despair for the American worker are clearly identified as corporate arrogance and spineless politicians. Moore's observations seem well researched, his arguments persuasive, and his proposed solutions radical, ranging from the bold to the preposterous. Recommended for nonfiction collections.?Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Hörkassette .

Americans today are working harder, working longer and yet for most of us, in this time of ruthless downsizing and political cronyism, job security, a decent standard of living and a comfortable retirement are becoming harder and harder to find. In this brilliantly funny and right-on-target diatribe, irreverent everyman Michael Moore gives his own bold views on who's behind the fading of the American dream.

Whether issuing Corporate Crook trading cards, organizing a Rodney King Commemorative Riot, sending a donation to Pat Buchanan from the John Wayne Gacy fan club (which was accepted) or trying to commit former right-wing congressman Bob Dornan to a mental hospital, the in-your-face host of TV Nation and director/star of Roger & Me combines an expansive wit with biting social commentary to make you think and laugh at the same time.

In hardcover, Downsize This! stormed the bestseller lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and others. Given Michael Moore's enormous -- and growing -- constituency, this trade paperback edition brings his unique perspective on the nation to an even greater audience.

The author takes on the corporate and political powers that be, setting his sights on astronomical CEO salaries, downsizing for fun and profit, and other contemporary maladies.

Michael Moore's first book, Downsize This!, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. The award-winning director of the groundbreaking documentary Roger & Me, which became the largest grossing nonfiction film of all time, Moore is the creator and host of the Emmy-winning series TV Nation and The Awful Truth. Also the coauthor (with Kathleen Glynn) of Adventures In A TV Nation, he lives in New York City.