Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Two Animated Videos that Illustrate the Contradictions of Capitalism

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Two Animated Videos that Illustrate the Contradictions of Capitalism

The Ultimate Roller Coaster Ride: A Brief History of Fossil Fuels [5:39m]
by Richard Heinberg from the Post Carbon Institute.

This should be subtitled "A brief History of Fossil Fuels and Capitalism". But, of course, it is taboo in the religion of capitalism to name the system.

The Economics of Happiness [trailer]
by the International Society for Ecology and Culture.

At least in this trailer of a film currently being produced, the spokespeople talk about the problems with the "system", nevertheless the producers of the film frame the problem as one of "regulation".

The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.