I'm not sure that I'd like to live next door to Michael Moore. For all that he's funny and brilliant and probably cooks a mean pizza, he is a compulsive pundit, someone who cannot resist smothering every last issue in the mozzarella of opinion. We might, I think, get into a huge argument about Northern Ireland when I pop round for a slice of quattro stagioni.
In "Stupid White Men", Moore writes that the Troubles would end if all Protestants in Northern Ireland would only convert to Catholicism. He's joking, of course, but is pro-independence, and believes that Northern Ireland's Catholics should "do a Gandhi" and stage a mass peaceful protest.
"As soon as you do that, as soon as you just sit down and massively refuse, non-violently to participate, the British, as is their wont, will initially kill a number of you for being non-violent," he declares. "But world opinion will be such that they will be forced to stop."
He realises that the British tend to be quite suspicious of Pro-Republican Americans, and quickly addresses this point.
"I don't support the IRA. Never would support them. I'm a pacifist. I would never support the use of violence as a means to an end. And you certainly don't need violence when dealing with the British. I don't know if pacifism would have worked with Hitler," he laughs, "but I do believe it will work with the British.
In "Stupid White Men", Moore writes that the Troubles would end if all Protestants in Northern Ireland would only convert to Catholicism. He's joking, of course, but is pro-independence, and believes that Northern Ireland's Catholics should "do a Gandhi" and stage a mass peaceful protest.
"As soon as you do that, as soon as you just sit down and massively refuse, non-violently to participate, the British, as is their wont, will initially kill a number of you for being non-violent," he declares. "But world opinion will be such that they will be forced to stop."
He realises that the British tend to be quite suspicious of Pro-Republican Americans, and quickly addresses this point.
"I don't support the IRA. Never would support them. I'm a pacifist. I would never support the use of violence as a means to an end. And you certainly don't need violence when dealing with the British. I don't know if pacifism would have worked with Hitler," he laughs, "but I do believe it will work with the British.