"We own your ass-- lock, stock, & barrel!"
********************
(THIS MOVIE IS
TO BE PART
DOCUMENTARY, PART REENACTMENT)
Opening shot: A McDonald's sign along the road, "the golden arches" raised up in the cloudy, miserable, polluted sky
The next shot shows the average, overweight, nebbish American with three-day stubble and a ball cap budged in at a table, taking a giant bite out of a "Big Mac"
A voice off-screen confronts him, a voice of campy authority that could only come from a mental hygiene film circa 1959:
"YOU!"
The man looks up, startled.
"YES, YOU!"
The man looks on in question, chewing on like a fat gerbil
"Do you know THE IMPLICATIONS of living your wasteful lifestyle? Are you aware of the system of imperialism it supports? How the rainforest is getting decimated everyday? Indigenous peoples are being wiped out by fat-asses such as yourself!"
The man looks on and frowns with his piggish eyes. Then he gets up and leaves with burger in hand, just LEAVING his trash on the table. The camera follows him as pushes through the doors and walks out to his black SUV
"This is not the path to being a good world citizen! There's global poverty in your midst! Folks around the world are living on less than two dollars a day! Haven't you ever heard of the IMF? It's MOTHER-FUCKING-IMPORTANT!!"
The fat slob slams the door and drives off
"Winning the hearts and minds of the people one-by-one, THAT'S THE AMERICAN WAY!"
********************
Black screen, narration voice over, an easy & slick voice:
"It's attitudes like that which made my job easier when I was in the game. tossing around poker chips as an "Economic Hit Man"
Open to a shot of a man in a suit sitting in a chair, back to the camera, smoking a cigar, facing out the window of an office building. He puffs for a bit, reveling in his power, then revolves around in his chair and casts the audience a cynical expression
"Think about the wealth in the world as a balloon"
He takes out a balloon, and half-inflates it, and ties it shut in a deft motion
"I squeeze this balloon, and the air rushes to one side"
He squeezes, and the balloon bulges, getting stretchy and shiny. He relaxes his grip, and the balloon goes to a more normal state. He squeezes again, and the balloon bulges, getting perilously close to breaking like an aneurism
"The money power does the squeezing-- and yes, to a certain extent we Westerners are the beneficiaries of 'the big squeeze'. We live on the right continent. But what do you think will happen when the balloon explodes?"
A close-up of the balloon in both his hands, he squeezes hard and pops it with a shocking report
"I was the fist, the company I worked for was the muscle"
********************
Cut to shot of plane landing at an airport.
Next is a shot of a man's shoes walking briskly through an airport terminal with a briefcase, interspersed with businessmen talking on payphones and checking their watches
Narration Voice-Over: "I don't want to get ideological on you. These shriveled Marxists or whatever they call themselves go on about "imperialism", "colonialism", and "hemongeny" but they don't even hold down a job as they harangue the system like parasites from the safety of the university. What, challenge me? A man in a three-piece suit? I'm the prime mover & shaker of "respectability", making a tidy sum for my services, while they huddle around some ugly mural in some run-down neighborhood and recite awful beatnik poetry against 'THE MAN'"
Cut to shot of ugly mural, a scraggly white professor standing on top of a soap box lecturing silently and dramatically with his finger in the air like a street agitator while black bums in stocking caps lean against the wall and drink malt liquor with easy sips, nodding along to the beat of rap music as narration overlays
Narration Voice-Over: "It takes the romance of a lost, forsaken cause to go on about this shit, but then again types on the left have never been known as particularly reasonable people"
Cut to shot of black bums jumping the professor, punching him in the gut. He folds up on the ground, and they run off with his wallet as "THEY'RE VICTIMS OF A RACIST SOCIETY!!!" flashes across the screen
Cut to shot of an anti-war rally circa 2002/2003, a 400 pound white man wearing dreadlocks, a tie-dye t-shirt, and mascara holding a peace sign and shouting, anarchists in black bandannas walking around with an upside-down American flag on a pole spray-painted with an anarchy sign, among other comically inept sorts who have crawled out of the woodwork to protest the Iraq invasion. Why, a man even walks around in a giant penis suit that wobbles from side to side. . . . . "PRESIDENT BUSH IS A DICK!" he shouts muffledly through the costume
"Humanity is vile", the economic hit man chuckles. "But believe it or not, my motives in the beginning were more pure"
Cut to magnificent shot of Latin American city-- white high-rises and hotels of wealth-- contrasted by the slums, ragged children running around like imps
"As the handbook goes, "International Development" means "bringing opportunity" to the Third World, uplifting the condition of the common people while turning a profit for ourselves. It's "globalization". You know what I mean. . . . . the bland stuff of Swiss bankers drinking hot chocolate in a meeting room somewhere in "The European Union", some elderly gentleman in a gray suit named "Hans" patting you on the shoulder and kissing you on either cheek"
"You know, the idea that we're all going to turn into a global village of a bunch of happy little 'Smurfs'"
Cut to shot of Smurfs in village, jabbering in French
The economic hit man holds out his hand, going into a little "side-note"
"My daughter used to watch that show. God, were they cute. . . . . and irritating too!"
"But anyway, tt was Francis Fukuyama who pronounced that "it was the end of history" after the fall of The Soviet Union, that gradually all countries would convert to stable, Western free-market democracies all aspiring to comfy middle-class lifestyles"
Cut to shot of plane flying into The World Trade Center
Cut to shot of rioting in the streets of the Middle-East
Cut to shot of U.S. soldiers on patrol in Iraq
"I guess there was still some unfinished business!"
********************
Back at the office, the economic hit man is still smoking a cigar in his chair. He's rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, contemplating. . . . . .
"Never underestimate the pure degree of inefficiency, grime, and friction that distinguishes the real world from the realm of ideals. We live in a world of piss, shit, and glaze-eyed darkness. . . . .
Cut to shot of an octopus being lifted out of a boat, focus on its sucking, glorping orifice
"The natural world of life is like a blind, feeding mouth that will 'seek its own level', like water going down a slope. Seeing that man came out of the natural world, why would we expect him to be any different? Why would the institutions of man not be bent toward this tendency over time, especially when it comes to power and money? Self-indulgence and greed?"
Close up of economic hit man's face
"Some might say 'God', but let me show you something:"
The economic hit man takes a handful of change out of his pocket and holds it in his hand
Close up of his hand
"I'm going to throw this handful of change up in the air. Whatever stays up in heaven, belongs to God. Whatever falls down to earth, belongs to me"
He throws the change up in the air and it falls down to the desk with a shocking clatter, coins spinning 'round and 'round
"Exactly"
********************
Cut to shot of the economic hit man, standing on a yacht in a captain's hat and a striped red shirt at the dock. Rigging is everywhere as men behind him work, bent over
"Top of the morning to you mate! Let's have 'a shrimp on the barbie'! This is my yacht, which I can afford on an economic hit man's salary. As I was saying back in the office-- about blind, feeding mouths-- let's take a look down at 'starboard'"
He walks down and beholds a bunch of barncales grasping on to the side of the ship. A man scrapes them off with a shovel
"Every one of man's idealistic ventures comes with these parasites who exist just below the waterline, where you can't see them. If they grab on long enough, they cause the ship to spring leaks. But of course, sometimes all these parasites-- for better or worse-- are holding the ship together despite the leaks. Scrape them off while you're at sea, and you'll sink right to the bottom"
He nods curtly
"That would define the relationship between government and American business"
********************
Cut to scene in "The Ten Commandments" when the galley slaves are rowing in the hold of the ship, and the commander orders "RAMMING SPEED!" as a drudge beats a drum and a brute enforcer cracks a whip
Narration Voice-Over: "Like it or not, we're all on this ship of state. And sometimes the barnacles are half-telling the commander what to do"
Focus on Charlton Heston rowing away wearily
"I know that whatever I wanted in my life, I didn't want to be trapped in the hold of the ship. I wanted to be on deck, with the privelleged few. I'd sell my soul not to share the fate of commoners, that downward drag of brutal logic, and I did. . . . . all for a price. Every man has a price, and mine was a life of intrigue and travel and adventure. Let me tell you how it began. . . . ."
(End of Demo)
*******************
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KIDS,
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