Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Film of the Week: Memory of a Plunder

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

Friday, February 7, 2014

Film of the Week: Memory of a Plunder

Click here to access an introduction to this film by Don Quijones posted on Raging Bull-Shit. (Note: I usually do not post material that I haven't read or watched, but this film looks very interesting.)

For a clearer understanding of the events leading up to the Argentinian collapse and the devastating impact they continue to have on the country’s economy and society, I recommend watching the following documentary. Filmed by Fernando Solanas, an Argentinian film maker who took six bullets in the leg for opposing the Menem government’s privatisation of Argentina’s public oil company, YPF, Memory of a Plunder is is one of the best audiovisual accounts of economic collapse ever made.

2/9/14 Update: I watched this film last night and experienced a horror show of neoliberalism and extreme individualism in Argentina which occurred from about 1985 on. It appeared that nearly every person (international and local banksters, politicians, bureaucrats, court justices, labor leaders, etc) who was in a position where they could steal the legacy of state owned properties did so regardless of the devastating consequences to their society.

Now I know what former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher meant when she essentially said, "There is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families." If you want to see a live laboratory where the ideology of neoliberalism was fully applied, then this film provides an excellent documented record of its effects in one country.