Entertaining Movies That Explore Problems With Capitalism and Consumerism
I was thinking about *The Right To Read* and wondering if there couldn't be a sci-fi action thriller that addressed the same issues. I then realized that there are probably plenty of movies in existance that fit the bill.
*Idiocracy* (2006) is about everyone losing the ability to think for themselves. Products control every aspect of life and the people will buy anything that is advertized to them. They become walking advertisments and their jobs are to do whatever the corporate computer system tells them to do. In a hilarious moment, Costco is shown to stretch on for miles.
In *Speed Racer* (2008) a family-owned motor company is threatened with a bogus Intellectual Property lawsuit. Furthermore, the movie is about a fun recreational sport that has been taken over by corporate interests who care only about: monopolizing the production of the racing machines and; exploiting the legal system and the races to make billions of dollars.
These movies are entertaining, but can also make people think about the dark side of capitalism and consumerism. Please share any movies or tv shows you think could spread awareness of these types of problems.
"They Live" is a classic with a similar message.
This one can seeeee.
Inside Job (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/)
Don't need SF, the truth is scaring enough.
Slightly off topic but you might like this. http://rdwolff.com/
1984
(by George Orwell)
https://archive.org/details/Meatpies_1984
Thanks, that one I didn't know about, maybe will take a look at it =)
Great suggestions! I'd like to see *They Live*, now, and I haven't seen many documentaries about economy so I think I'd like *Inside Job*.
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While I have to admit I've never seen the movie Network, this is the first thing that came to my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS4aiA17YsM
Edit: I guess the movie version of Farenheit 451 also applies (Montag's wife is consumed by consumerism and her need to be with the "family"), but I don't think the movie itself is very good.
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Maybe we should have an off-topic section on these forums.
I'm not saying that this discussion isn't worth having, but it's certainly not Trisquel- or even Free Software-related.
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I guess I thought there was a tenuous link here. Proprietary software companies are all about ensnaring a huge amount of people with the latest trend (at least I think so in this day of ubiquitous smart-phones and flashy computers), and afterward using their position to exploit these people for data graphs, viral advertisement, and $$$. I see a lot of paralells to that in some movies... but I could be wrong since I tend to see paralells where there are none.
I'm guessing these forums aren't yet too big to be handled without sections. I supposed that's why the forum is called "Trisquel users": not necessarily *about* Trisquel, but stuff Trisquel users like to discuss. I agree that if there were sections this post would belong in the "off-topic" area. I'm glad you think it's a worthwhile topic. :-)
While it may not be totally related to the subject, one movie that I like very much and might have something that will interest you, is "V for Vendetta". It's a wonderful movie.
That (very bad) movie is, in fact, what I call "Hegelian Propaganda"... (http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=149835.msg891490#msg891490)
And another great way (of the powers-that-be, that financed such a movie) to misrepresent Anarchism as a synonym for Nihilism.
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All of the ones mentioned above are interesting as well. "V for Vendetta" is a great movie!
What do you mean by "capitalism"?
http://xrl.us/bpnaxz (Link to distributedrepublic.net)
I used the term quite loosely. By "capitalism" I mean the part of our society that is focused solely on making money. The "dark side" of capitalism is exploiting consumers and the legal system for that making of money.
serious
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtocracy (cc by-sa 3.0 gr)
funny handling of serious stuff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men_Fix_The_World ("a creative commons license")
not serious
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist_%28series%29 (non-commercial)
(Looks like you can tell based on the license alone how serious these guys are...)
Being such a specific topic...
The only one I can think of now, is (maybe) "The International"(?)... (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963178/) Although, this is a movie more about the banking system, than the capitalist mode of production (with which it is very much intertwined)...
(But, beware that some of this movies appear, a lot, to have so-called "predictive programming"/"subliminal elements" in their arguments... ;) - http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=79424.msg673912#msg673912)
In this present day, I think that the problem people should be alerted to, is not "Free-Market" Capitalism, any more. But, Capitalism in its Corporate/Fascist form, instead - which is the one we increasingly have, in terms of Economics. (And not only...)
People cannot afford to mindlessly spend money, any more. Since, most of them now simply don't have the money to do that - due to the fact that the Economy is being destroyed *on purpose*, in order to save what's left of precious (and scarce) natural resources for the elites (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3OfMqbXnz8#t=3m52s + http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg-fears-losing-control-in-chaos-plagued-world.html + http://www.danielestulin.com/2010/12/03/los-verdes/#comment-5786 + etc).
(So, the "problem" of people wasting natural resources on things they don't really need is already being "solved"... In the worst way possible...)
That's an interesting idea: maybe I don't quite get what you're saying, but it does seem more and more to me like companies are creating "products" out of nothing and getting consumers to pay more and more for it. It also seems to me like interest on debt -- like on credit cards and loans -- practically makes money appear out of thin air to be collected by huge corporations. All without creating any resources in a proportionate amount.
Hmm I really AM getting off-topic of Trisquel and free software here... but then again, proprietary software is one of those products that developers are conjuring and consumers are paying exhorbitant prices for it.