This film revolves around the state of the world that is corruption. The main reason or cause of this corruption is the monetary system. Our society, work, and power rely on one thing and that is money. This film/documentary also offers a solution, which is a system that is resource-based and not money-based. “This solution is not based on politics, morality, laws, or any other ‘establishment’ notions of human affairs, but rather on a modern, non-superstitious based understanding of what we are and how we align with nature, to which we are a part”-IMDb.
Basically, this solution offers an economy, or system where there are no poor people, because of the destruction of money. Part one of this documentary shows how money corrodes the traditions, and cultures. It also puts light on the different policies of money in the United States. With the reference of “Modern Money Mechanics,” This part illustrates how the creation of money the government imposed on the Federal Reserve can create a constant cycle of inflation and interest rates. This has much to do with the market circulation.
In the market circulation, the government is in the center and has the outflow of subsidies towards the firms but also has an inflow of tax from firms, households, etc. , which creates the cycle of inflation and interest. Part two of this film shows an interview with John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman. From the word “Hitman,” we know that money, economy, politics, and control was involved. In this part, Latin-American countries had leaders who strived to improve their country’s economy.
Big corporations even the United States confronted these leaders in an effort to control their resources or source of money then subjugate them through loans. Some of the leaders refused the offer then the hitman comes in. These countries were Iran 1953, Ecuador 1981, Panama 1981, and Iraq 2003. There were three steps of how these corporations, including the United States, subjugate those countries with rich deposits of resources. The first step was the economic hitman who starts out with presenting loans to those
leaders. The second step, which is “the jackal,” was in case the first was not successful. “The jackal” either overthrows governments or assassinates them just like in Ecuador. The third step is “the military,” which is basically a war to overthrow the government and install their corporations there. Part three of the documentary talks about Jacques Fresco and The Venus Project. This is where the solution comes in where there is no money at all, only a resource-based economy. These were the ideas of Jacques Fresco.
In addition, he said that the contributing factors of the problems stated before were free market enterprise and capitalism. To implement these solutions, Fresco said that another entity will be an expense, which is the environment. Part four of the film discussed that all the major problems are outcomes of the ignorance of emergent and symbiotic. It is an ignorance that is maintained by the system we have today. To counter this, Peter Joseph suggests social changes that are non-violent and to boycott those corporations.
Based on this film, the corporations are the ones with most corruptions since, for them, nothing is ever enough. For me, I agree with Peter Joseph that this world should be changed into a resource-based economy. I think that the times before Mercantilism where they used resources and not gold or silver were a time when there were no poor people, because their lives solely depends on their resources, which are food, shelter, and apparel. The author used his rhetorical appeals, which also made me agree with him.
The ethos part was a bit incredible but the interviews and statistics were able to prove his point as well as the illustrations. The pathos part was what really can appeal to the people, because the parts where society and great leaders were involved can really strike the audience like the rising of inflation or the deaths of beloved leaders. I think that the logos part was that money is the cause to all problems. It has a similarity to “The love of money is the root of all evil.”
There is another quote, which is “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power absolutely corrupts”-Lord Acton, that is a logic to prove that money/power corrupts the people. I think that the target audiences for this film are the ones who can make a difference. If not, then this would be an informative film. This film had a negative aura. I think that this is a good device, because from what I have learned and agree to, people have to know the whole information. They should not censor anything, because for us to really get the message, we have to see what the true colours.
