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Bowling for Columbine Response

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Submitted By lsavoy11
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SOC 101
2/18/2014
Bowling for Columbine Response
In all of Michael Moore’s documentaries, he demonstrates ironclad points with distinguishing examples. He appeals to the emotions and morals of the audience. While tugging on heartstrings and caressing the laws of society, he manipulates the viewers. In fact, every documentary is made to so do, not just Michael Moore’s. In the documentary, Bowling for Columbine, Moore uses the age old documentary techniques to lead each viewers to a more polarized battlefield; he quoted the National Rifle Association.
The National Rifle Association struggles to protect the right to bear arms. The NRA gets a little extreme, like most organizations. Associations are polar, life is polarity. You will have the extreme in every one you meet. Peta for example, (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is a great cause solid beliefs that we, as a world, needs to protect the interests of animals. Who wouldn’t want to save puppies from cruel, unnecessary testing? However, when Peta activists line the streets in lettuce bikinis, people begin to see them as extremist. The NRA is the same way. When Charlton Heston expresses his extreme views publicly after the Columbine tragedy with the exclamation, “From my cold, dead hands,” the NRA starts to get a bad reputation as well.
Michael Moore used Heston’s mistake of leading a rally right after the tragedy to his advantage. Moore portrayed the NRA as inhumane, cruel people who don’t care about the tragedy at Columbine High School. Viewers who are aware of documentary tricks may catch that it is extreme manipulation. Others, however, now believe that the NRA is the devil. Bringing up the NRA in such a negative light was an unfair argument in Bowling for Columbine. It was an ad hominem attack against Charlton Heston. This argument was a logical fallacy, and should be taken out of the documentary or, if you have immense willpower, completely ignored.
Before watching any documentary, viewers need to be prepared to test facts & develop filters that can decipher the special effects and manipulation that film makers throws into movies can really help sort through the logical fallacies and get to the truth behind them.

The basis of the documentary is written from the conflict perspective. It portrays those in law and government as the strong positions of power over the mass. Instilling fear into society through many mediums is one attribute of the Conflict Perspective. A society bathed in this perspective is not equal in any sense of the word. I’m grateful that there are many perspectives we can pull from.

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