MovieChat Forums > Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (2004) Discussion > A truly brilliant man or a master manipu...

A truly brilliant man or a master manipulator?

posted 14 years ago by bubuh1117
3 replies | jump to latest

It seems in this documentary he contradicts himself. On one hand he says police are not neutral describing how he was knocked to the ground at a communist rally. Yet later when he's describing what I assume is the proper response to 9/11 he says that we should look to police as examples of compassion. Is he being somewhat manipulative?

He said the best way to turn a country communist was to invade them. What if the country is invaded by communists (as was the case in the eastern bloc countries after WWII or Tibet)?

What would he have to say about those who fought against communism in the Soviet Union? Or the countless Chinese who died opposing Mao? These are people who didn’t have a bill of rights to protect them. There were no journalists shouting with indignation at the injustice of these people being shipped to googols and certain death. Better yet, why doesn’t he write a book about his counterparts in those countries? A book about those who agitated. How many of them got tenures in Universities and enjoyed seducing students with their flattering talk and revolutionary ideals? I doubt he'd find many if any at all. I doubt he'd even be able to find their graves as most of them are probably unmarked. Would he even acknowledge such people? Would he have anything to say about those who he considers ideological heretics?

How about he writes about those who rose to the occasion after a crisis of conscience and tried to reform Islam? And were slaughtered or exiled for their trouble. Doubt he'd find many of those either.

I doubt he'd care.

Zinn. If you read this. I challenge you to prove me wrong.

[–] bubuh1117 14 years ago

I guess he had nothing to say.

[–] tolbs1010 14 years ago

I don't want to detract from the important work Howard Zinn did in the 60's and 70's, but there is something very self-congratulatory about him. This film was a big propaganda piece, and therefore, a disservice to what Zinn was supposedly all about.

In an ideal world, Zinn's philosophies would work, but this is not an ideal world. The closest comparison to his world view would be Communism and there's a reason why Communism doesn't work (and don't say China, because they have basically been Capitalist under a Communist guise for a long time now). Humans always want more for themselves--just like other species.

The fact is the United States, with all its flaws and contradictions (and violence), still gives people the best chance at leading a peaceful, productive, happy life. Our military strength is the largest reason for that.

A world without war would mean a world without humans.

[–] Shocking-Knowledge 10 years ago

There is only a select group of people that want constant war..the patriotic fervor of war, mass support for war because of the propaganda of the media.

U.S. and European, throw in some Asian corporations exploit the resources of other countries that leads to war and the destruction of lives, no one is more responsible than the U.S. If the people that live here, the majority at least, didn't want the latest iphones, gadgets, computers, diamonds, etc... we wouldn't have children with limbs missing because of the ''conflict minerals'' and ''blood diamonds'', we wouldn't have worker suicides in factories in Asia.

Mass consumerism is destroying our country.

The U.S. wasn't a democracy up until at least he late 60's, you can't have one segment of a country discriminated agaisnt and call yourself a democracy. Some say that we aren't a democracy even today, and in one had they are correct... New Zeland treats their homosexual population with the same rights as their other populations. If we are the greatest country, why do we still discriminate agaisnt groups of people, not just homosexuals.

Communism doesn't work because of the greed of people, always looking for their own interest above the interest of others. Socialism is a different thing. Capitalism only works for the people that actually make all the money and kick down the stuff they want us to have.

Capitalism is keeping the lie alive that anyone can be a millionaire.