After seeing the Gore movie, my liberal friends said that they liked Gore, and one said that she would vote for him if he were to run for president. The general consensus was that Gore was testing the waters whether he could run on an ecological platform. Then the discussion went over to different issues.
After getting over my frustration I have been wondering whether this is perhaps a big flaw of the movie itself. By leaving the possibility open that this might simply be the opening move for Gore's re-election campaign, Gore gives the viewers a way out. They don't need to feel responsible to do something, they can simply say: all that is required of me is vote for Gore, then he will fix the environment for me. BTW, the Utah audience was very receptive to the movie. They clapped several times, there were gasps when he showed the shrinking glaciers, and there were knowing chuckles when Gore said that he had hoped the Congressional Hearings about the environment in the 1960s would create a big stir, but reality proved otherwise. Gore's explanation why Congress didn't act was extremely lame. He said that they had so many more pressing issues that they procrastinated on the environment. Despite evidence elsewhere in the movie that it was not just procrastination but willful deception of the public. His failure to dig deeper on these issues reinforced the common taboo in our society that one is not allowed to recognize our "democratic" system as part of the problem, instead of being the solution. That's the main thing I wanted to say. Here are some of the indicators why the movie seems to be a big campaign speech: (1) Gore never said he would not run. (2) Gore did not say in the movie that it was necessary to raise taxes and that we have to get away from the growth paradigm. I.e., he was silent about the most important implications of the environmental crisis, because mentioning them would have made him un-electable. (3) Gore mentioned briefly that Bush reneged on his campaign promise to do something about carbon-dioxide. This may be true, but Gore should have left partisan politics out of the movie. (4) Gore's insistence that care for the environment is good for the economy shows that he is not going to address the main culprit, which is capitalist business. (5) If he follows his own advice at the end of the movie "talk to your congress representative and, if they don't listen, get yourself elected", then he will run for president. If Gore puts the environment second to his pipe dream of becoming president, then no wonder his viewers put the environment second to whatever pressing issues they have in their lives. Hans G. Ehrbar
