Fahrenheit 9/11: See It.

By now, as with The Passion of the Christ, nearly everyone has an opinion of Fahrenheit 9/11, regardless of whether she or he has actually seen it. To a Fundamentals student, it's an intellectual sin to judge or opine about a "text" one has not "read" and considered for oneself. Regardless of your political orientation, then, I urge you to see the film, as Kevin and I just did. Obviously one must keep one's critical faculties intact throughout the movie, and be willing to challenge Moore whenever something smells fishy. But I commend the film because that is explicitly it's broader goal, to reignite and reinvigorate the critical-analytic faculties of the US body politic - to wake us up to the democratic responsibility of critique. As a citizen, I found the movie a healing moment after all the politically abusive rhetoric - holding dissent and challenge to be "unpatriotic" - that has been shoved upon the people of the US. Being intellectually and ethically alive means, in no small part, hungering for earnest, accountable contestation of what matters most in life and society - and zealously seeking worthwhile conversation partners to feed that hunger, partners who make us think even as we heartily disagree. It's why I read The Economist and The Nation, though I often disagree with each. And it's why you should watch Fahrenheit 9/11: not because you'll agree or disagree, but because it's a partner worth jousting with, a partner seeking to open up a conversation - a conversation desperately necessary to free society.

Upholding that conversation, zealously pursuing it, is about the most patriotic thing one can do. So for this Independence Day, I pledge to pay $10 to anyone who sees the movie between now and November 2, 2004. Just send me your ticket stub.

As Francis Bacon wrote, and as is carved in Harper Memorial Library, "Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider."

(DISCLAIMER: In a spirit of intellectual openness, I also indicate a counter-view of the film, one that's at least intelligible among much drivel: "Unfairenheit 9/11: the lies of Michael Moore", by Christopher Hitchens.)