Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Provocative Documentary by Woody Harrelson [updated commentary]

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

Monday, April 22, 2013

Provocative Documentary by Woody Harrelson [updated commentary]

Note: This was originally posted on 4-16-2013.
Click here to access article by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall from her blog The Most Revolutionary Act.

This political refugee is now living and working in New Zealand after fleeing from FBI harassment when she was living in Seattle. Here she offers a review of this documentary which I highly recommend after only watching the first 16 minutes of it. The YouTube version is posted in her article and also the documentary can be purchased online.

In my opinion, it has powerful take home lessons for Americans across the political spectrum. Largely because it addresses what I view as the two main obstacles to political change in the US 1) the immense power private banks enjoy via their control over the money supply and 2) the enormous power the corporate media exerts over public information.

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4-22-2013: I finally got around to viewing the whole film last night, and I was very disappointed. I wonder if Bramhall had viewed the whole film. I think I, and others, were "taken for a ride", a ride that I will identify as a "gatekeeping operation" by agents of the One Percent to manage the dissent of people exposed to left-wing political analysis.

It started off very well by citing various themes on the left regarding hidden corporate power undermining democratic institutions and shaping our minds in support of wars and the mindless consumption of products. But, then it ends up citing the dangers of one world government, a favorite right-wing conspiracy theme, and declaring that we have an easy way to deal with these hidden powers--by making suitable shopping decisions! This seductive gatekeeping was designed to lure in leftists in the early section by citing themes that they were already familiar with, then having hooked them (as they did me), they lead them into ideological dead ends.

The first dead end was by claiming that we were being led to a one world government. Here we see, as is frequently the case with right-wing propaganda, that government is the problem, albeit world government. That claim, of course, doesn't at all follow from the preceding section of the film. The second dead end was the silly shopping weapon that people supposedly can use to oppose corporate policies and activities.