The American Dream has become The American Nightmare for most people. One of the problems is that many of us can’t see – or aren’t old enough to remember – how much of that dream has slipped away over the past 50 years.

Where to Invade Next? is filmmaker Michael Moore’s personal indictment of contemporary American society. Moore plays the role of “invader” raiding other countries for ideas and solutions to America’s many social problems.

It’s almost painful to watch at times. In Italy, workers get 8 weeks guaranteed paid vacation; paid sick leave and maternity Leave; all Holidays off; and they even get a month off for ‘Marriage Leave.’

Moore visits a middle-school cafeteria in a small town in France where kids are served freshly cooked gourmet meals created by a chef and a team of assistants. Somehow the French manage to feed their kids incredible, 4-course meals at a fraction of the cost of America’s school systems. They also drink only water at the table. Moore tries to give one of the students a coke and they all politely decline. Nary a vending machine in sight.

Shown a photo of a typical American school lunch, the children’ faces register both astonishment and disgust. “Is that some kind of meat?” one asks. The chef takes one look and says simply, “That’s not food…”

In Slovenia college tuition is free: even for foreign students! Moore talks to a couple of American kids who left behind thousands of dollars in debt back home to attend tuition-free college in the former Soviet satellite. Moore discovers that many of the classes in Slovenian colleges are even taught in English!

He then goes to Germany, a country which is surprisingly open about its tarnished history. But rather than pretend the Nazi regime never existed or try to make excuses for it – like Americans do with the Civil War – World War II is part of the required school curriculum.

Finland has one of the world’s finest education systems; but students there receive no homework, enjoy two-hour lunch breaks every day and most importantly: they take no standardized tests. This is why they are beating the crap out of America’s students. Less work, more free time!

In Norway, Moore goes to a maximum security prison that looks more like a college dormitory – with private bathrooms, computers, TVs, and even a recording studio. The prison guards sing a rousing, highly competent rendition of WE ARE THE WORLD on the ‘new prisoner’ orientation video!

You can’t make this stuff up.

Portugal totally decriminalized all recreational drugs in 2001. Since that time, drug use has actually decreased. Moore interviews Portuguese police along with Portugal’s Minister of Health, Dr. Nuno Capaz, who looks like some guy off the street. Moore asks Dr. Capaz if he himself is an addict and his answer is edifying: “Yes. Mostly alcohol, internet, a lot of coffee, some sugar…sex if I can..”

Moore points out that drug abuse can cause a lot of sadness in someone’s life. “So?” Capaz replies. “So does Facebook. Are we going to make that illegal?”

Upholding and preserving human dignity are the core ideological principles behind these humane policies. The exact opposite is true in this country. America is inhumane. Here, we like to judge everyone and punish them. Harshly.

He goes to Tunisia – a Muslim country – where the government provides subsidized abortions, and where women have seized unprecedented political power. Talk about shock and awe!

Moore discovers that Iceland is the one of the few countries which actually prosecuted the bankers responsible for the financial meltdown. Maybe that’s because Iceland is another country where women hold prominent positions in government.

Where To Invade Next shows how other countries have dismantled many of the conceptual ‘prisons’ which Americans still live in: prison-like schools and offices, debtor’s prison for college students; the mental prison of refusing to take responsibility for our own dark past; the prisons of ignorance, racism and Christian fundamentalist ideologies.

Not to mention all of those real-live prisons.

The reason why Americans have built so many of these literal and mental prisons around us is because the core ideology of the United States isn’t about freedom or democracy anymore. It isn’t even about capitalism. It’s something more ominous:

People are inherently bad and they cannot be trusted.

Apparently people are so bad in America they must be constantly monitored, controlled and threatened with punishment or society will crumble to dust. The logic seems to be that if we get one second of real freedom we’ll run amok and ruin it for everybody. We can’t be trusted with actual freedom. We certainly can’t handle The Truth.

The main take away from Where to Invade Next? is that America has it all wrong when it comes to human nature. We really aren’t bad people. It’s okay to get high. It’s okay to take a vacation or get sick, and it’s okay for young people to enjoy life and spend every waking moment thinking about sex.

It’s okay for black people to exist and live in neighborhoods and walk down the fucking street.

When people have control over their lives, they generally use their time wisely – building better lives for their children and their communities: not on destructive, counterproductive pursuits. Quality of life makes a huge difference in how people behave (unfortunately, that theory doesn’t apply to the 1%. They have simply become more inbred and evil over the years).

Everyone needs to see this movie to understand that it will take a major grassroots revolution to take back the country we thought we had. We need to return America to the principles it was founded upon.