The character of Will McAvoy is played by Jeff Daniels ...who plays a
SUPER smart and devoted to justice news anchor on cable. Think a better
Keith Olberman. (Is he KO?) I knew that Aaron Sorkin is a genuis from
The West Wing and The American President. This is still the amazing
writing of Sorkin but with good acting and drama around it. A great
cast including Olivia Munn. Here is the monologue that sold me and
should sell everyone who votes
on any awards show. In the opening scene of the entire series,
McAvoy is in a roundtable and is WHY is America The greatest country in
the world...and he
replies ....
Will McAvoy:
It's not the greatest country in the world, professor, that's my answer.
Moderator: You're saying...
Will McAvoy: Yes.
Moderator: Let's talk about...
Will
McAvoy: Fine. Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny
out of our paychecks, but he gets to hit you with it anytime he wants.
It doesn't cost money, it costs votes. It costs airtime and column
inches. You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If
liberals are so fuckin' smart, how come they lose so GODDAM ALWAYS! And
with a straight face, you're going to tell students that America's so
starspangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have
freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy,
Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven
sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom. And you...
sorority girl. Yeah, just in case you accidentally wander into a voting
booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them
is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that
we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy,
twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life
expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income,
number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the
world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per
capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense
spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries
combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of this is the fault of a
20-year-old college student, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt,
a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you
ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what
the fuck you're talking about? Yosemite? We sure used to be. We stood up
for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck
down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people.
We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our
mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things,
made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured
diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's
greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We
aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel
inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last
election, and we didn't scare so easy. And we were able to be all these
things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men,
men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is
recognizing there is one-America is not the greatest country in the
world anymore.
[to moderator]
Will McAvoy: Enough?
