Hmm, I don't like Egoyan at all. But I'm a Canadian who hates all things Canadian (with the exception of hockey, beer, and Pam Anderson). I just think we make absolutely the worst films. I read the script for Exotica, and had to put it down after 30 some pages, because the dialogue was just fucking horrid. And it didn't hold my interest in the least. Then, after enjoying the Russel Banks-adapted Affliction, I decided to check out Sweet Hearafter. Man, can this guy make actors look wooden and ridiculous. I had to shut that off, too. Why do people call this genius? It's just the same as shit all over CBC, and in every bad Canadian film school. Just junk. Maybe the non-Canadians think it's cool because it's so different, but lemme tell you, it's not representative of anything particularily unique in Canada, besides bad filmmaking.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.
When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.