Orwell Rolls in His Grave

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 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.