Lifting The Veil from Metanoia is a must-see documentary, or at least the first part of it is. The entire film is available below. I can give the film my qualified endorsement (see below). This short description appears on the YouTube page.
Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy
This film explores the historical role of the Democratic Party as the "graveyard of social movements", the massive influence of corporate finance in elections, the absurd disparities of wealth in the United States, the continuity and escalation of neocon policies under Obama, the insufficiency of mere voting as a path to reform, and differing conceptions of democracy itself.
Original interview footage derives from Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Michael Albert, John Stauber (PR Watch), Sharon Smith (Historian), William I. Robinson (Editor, Critical Globalization Studies), Morris Berman (Author, Dark Ages America), and famed black panther Larry Pinkney.
Non-original interviews/lectures include Michael Hudson, Paul Craig Roberts, Ted Rall, Richard Wolff, Glen Ford, Lewis Black, Glenn Greenwald, George Carlin, Gerald Cliente, Chris Hedges, John Pilger, Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Wollin and Martin Luther King.
Looking at the list of non-original interviews/lectures above, you will see that the film has a decidedly leftist slant (e.g. Glen Greenwald, Richard Wolff, Chris Hedges, Bernie Sanders), especially during its second half. While those on the left often discern the truth about how American society is run, they often suffer under the delusion that something can be done about it. Unfortunately, in the history of the world, elites have always run the show. In this view, the prosperous post-World War II decades in America were the exception, not the rule. Even during the good years when we had a thriving Middle Class, elites still controlled the country, but the corrupting influences of Imperial power and corporate greed had not become so pronounced as they did starting in the Reagan years.
This unpleasant historical fact—there are always powerful elites running the show—suggests a deep cause rooted in Human Nature. Why would anything change now? Believe me, the situation in this country is way, way, way, way beyond fixing. I'm not kidding around—the Empire's decline is inexorable and unavoidable. The trend is absolutely clear. Leftists are also naive about money & finance. Even today, neo-keynesian liberal economists like Paul Krugman and Brad Delong think ... oh, never mind. And leftists are really preachy, too. And prone to conspiracy theories... But I digress.
That being said, much of what I discuss on DOTE is covered in the film, especially during the first hour. Yves Smith posted the video at Naked Capitalism, but I want my readers see it, or at least be aware of it. You might want to have a bucket handy during the early part of the film when the filmmakers show clips from Obama's 2008 campaign—The Hope, The Change, and so on. This was the creation of the "Obama Brand" as Larry Pinkney later to referred to it.
You can stop watching sometime before the 1 hour mark unless you're a glutton for punishment. The main points are made before the 36:25 mark, at which point Bernie Sanders takes the floor for a while. As George Carlin said in considerably less time, the wealthy elites who run this country own the politicians, and they don't give a fuck about you. Just as politicans have always done over the last 30 years, Barack Obama sold you down the river.
I've seen this before and showed it to people. They think its just more of the same - an effort to raise money for same angle. Doooooommmmmeeeeeddddd.
Posted by: JC | 06/07/2011 at 04:50 PM