A documentary made a few years back, but still broadly relevant today. It’s all about how corporate lobbyists control government, and how corporate interests control media, and the dangers to democracy that result from this high degree of corporatization. The specific example here is that of the United States of Amnesia, but the implications are global, as corporations and their lobbyists, wherever unchecked, can undermine virtually any democracy in the world, falsify election results to their liking, marginalize popular candidates and parties, and send the truth itself down the Memory Hole.
The one heartening thing in the film is the fact that corporate control has not YET taken the reins of the Internets. And, as the Arab Spring, the Occupy movements, and other rebellions stemming directly from the revelations of Wikileaks have shown us, that means that the real power today lies not in the hands of corporate media, but — for as long as the Internets remain open — in the hands of the people who make the revolutions. Word of mouth still travels too fast for the corporations to contain, and therein lies the hope for democracy.
1984 passed by almost completely unnoticed by the 99% who were glued to the tube watching shadows on the wall. Now that the pigs have taken over the farm and the sheaple are being sheared in preparation for slaughter some of them have woke up and realized that they have lost the farm. The protests have started but big brother still controls and confuses many with newspeak. Will we see Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, or is it too late?