Shifting Baselines

We have a social trend in this country that is sloshing back in forth in the past few months. It is the question of whether you are allowed to criticize the movement you are part of (or at least share the same goals with).

Last year I made a film, Flock of Dodos (still airing this week on Showtime), that had a double message to it. The first message met the expectations of my presumed "peer group" of evolutionary biologists, which is that intelligent design is not science and anyone advocating it is probably part of a flock of dodos. But the second part of the message was that scientists are poor communicators and, given that all the facts are on their side, they often end up coming off as just as big of a flock of dodos.

As expected, a number of evolutionists expressed dismay and even hinted at disloyalty on my part for turning a critical eye towards fellow members of my group. Even such esteemed authorities as P.Z. Myers groused over why I felt the need to be critical of people who are just trying to do their job.

And then, in a similar manner, Carl Safina weighed in on my comments on this blog in our opening seafood debate, hinting I was somehow disloyal to environmentalism by criticizing ocean conservationists for their poor communication skills.

But now we can see a similar trend at the larger societal scale today as Cindy Sheehan gives up on her role as lead public figure for the anti-war movement in an essay titled Good Riddance Attention Whore on the Daily Kos. She sadly tells of how the Left embraced her wholeheartedly so long as she said the exact words they wanted to hear. But as soon as she began speaking critically of both ends of the spectrum, the Left turned on her with equal viciousness.

What's interesting to me is that my film was complimented for being "even-handed" in many of the reviews -- some of them went so far as to say explicitly it is "not a Michael Moore film," meaning it was not one-sided and polarizing, which felt good (in particular, the Variety review, a big gun in the entertainment industry).

And now, guess what. Michael Moore has gone and made a film that the critics are basically saying is "not a Michael Moore film." His new movie Sicko is being heaped with praise (even from Fox News!) for taking an equally critical look at the failure of both Republicans and Democrats to create a decent health care system in this country.

I guess all I can say is that there is a psychology to the art of "persuasion." And part of it consists of creating a voice that is at least perceived as being relatively fair minded. And for people who are caught in the middle of an issue, still trying to make up their minds, it is THAT voice that they are likely to actually listen to. Not to the obviously one-sided rants that seem to glut the airwaves these days.

So congratulations to Michael Moore (he deserves great honors for the strength of his voice), condolences to Cindy Sheehan (she had good intentions), and for everyone out there searching or irregularities in people's agendas, know that there is a long term value in seeking a spirit of fairness, even if it doesn't sound 100% like the music you like to hear.

Cindy Sheehan, an American activist,
lost her son Casey Sheehan in the Iraq War.