Who is the Modern Gadfly?

Who is the Modern Gadfly?

This is a difficult questions to answer. The present is sadly devoid of prominent gadflies. So while I'm not exactly sold on my answer, I have to go with Michael Moore: super-duper-leftist film maker extraordinaire. I love this man, but I know for a fact that many people do not. The thing that makes him a gadfly, rather than just a man with a camera and an opinion, is his willingness to be the guy no one wants to talk with at a party. When he wants he can be crazy annoying, but it's always to get his point across. In his movie Bowling for Columbine (probably his best received work) he took three survivors of the Columbine high school shooting to the kmart from which the bullets that were still lodged in their flesh had been purchased. They bought out the entire stock to keep those bullets from being sold to potential murderers. But that was definitely not enough. Moore brought the survivors to a Kmart flagship store in an attempt to return the merchandise embedded in the flesh of these young people. Moore and the victims were able to meet with Kmart executives and the next day the corporation announced they would be taking ammunition off their shelves. Still,. Moore had to bother frazzled employee after employee for hours and hours before getting a chance to speak with the execs. Most of Moore's antics are not this successful. Moore can often be seen on the steps of a capitol building, or in a boat full of 9/11 volunteers approaching Guantanamo Bay, shouting at the unseen powers residing within through a megaphone. After gaining admittance to Charlton Heston's home and challenging him on his pro-gun views and NRA statues, he was promptly kicked out. Some people are annoying just because they like to watch people squirm, some activists are overly polite because they don't want to be disliked- Michael Moore is neither of those things. Moore attempts to be as polite as possible while still not letting anyone off the hook, and he catches it all on camera. While Socrates wasn't concerned with preserving his dialogue, Moore is. By putting a camera in the situation people become self-conscious and not wanting to be portrayed in a bad light, they often reveal exactly what they are trying to hide.

Even if you disagree with Moore's politics you have to admire the way he unashamedly confronts people that need confronting and his effectiveness as a gadfly.