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That only a few, under any circumstances, protest against the injustice of long-established laws and customs, does not disprove the fact of the oppressions, while the satisfaction of the many, if real only proves their apathy and deeper degradation. - Elizabeth C. Stanton

Many years have passed since the United States’ Revolutionary War, and somewhere betwixt those years the dynamics of the governors and the governed in the U.S. has shifted. Michael Moore’s latest theatrical exposé, Sicko, asks the question central to this reality: Are the governors afraid of the governed, or the governed afraid of the governors? The latter is arguably the regrettable case for most U.S. citizens.

Believing the film is about the twisted nature of the for-profit health care system, buying and bidding of U.S. politicians, superiority of health care systems abroad (even in countries less economically fortunate than the U.S.), or stories of human beings victimized by the U.S. health care system, misses the deepest point.

The film is a case-study of a country plagued by apathetic and individualistic citizens.

U.S. American self-proclaimed greatness, channeled through delusional indoctrination begun at an early age in institutions of education, anchors such complacency. “How could anything get better in the U.S.A.? It’s already the best it can be, right?” And worse, U.S. Americans turn a blind eye to the needs of their own neighbors, to citizens of other countries, and even to the environment: an attitude fueled by rabid and drunken individualism and capitalism. “I don’t want to pay for your health care.” -and- “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Walking away from the film, this conclusion could be surmised: U.S. Americans must get out of their isolated microcosms, take an honest look at the world in which they live, learn to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” and actively advocate change in the U.S. to ensure a better future for themselves and their children, for other people and other people’s children.

United States of America, take to the streets, and scare the poop out of your governors!