“Inside Job”
Most of the time I am able to dismiss the fucked-upped-ness of the global political landscape with a few minutes of that warm-fuzzy, hard-to-breath, helpless-like-you’re-in-the-middle-of-Montana-or-Iowa-and-cannot-do-anything-to-change-the-bigger-picture feeling. I felt politically aware in 2008, when it felt like America was going to right its metaphorical ship and elect a President and Congress that had a good idea what to do next. I felt like I could speak on issues that were pertinent at the time—none of them come to mind now.
Once President Obama was inaugurated over two years ago, I sort of switched to auto-pilot. I have regularly read news online from varying sources (usually CNN.com and HuffingtonPost.com, with a few token visits to FOXNews when I wanted the total political reaction). I usually know the hot button issues. I have a feel for what major legislation is being considered. Beyond that, I can at anytime tell you what celebrity is doing what drug with how many porn stars, which NFL players are considered “fantasy worthy” (in terms of Fantasy Football, not the other type of fantasy), and the current occupancy of Snookie’s vagina.
I figured that in November 2008, our work as citizens was done, and we’d be getting some sort of return on investment in the form of Oprah-like handouts within four years (we did own a few car companies there for awhile). I read the news and stayed optimistic.
Now I have more time to watch well-constructed documentaries with our current society as its subject. The most recent was “Inside Job,” this year’s Oscar winner for Feature-length Doc. It details what caused the financial shit-storm that became apparent around that Presidential election of 2008. Banks failing, government bailouts, something about Stimuli. Lots of money that I never saw change hands in the Fake America was somehow ruining the real America. Never understood it, heard a lot about it, thought I could move past it.
If I have a central complaint about myself as a person it’s that I don’t have a good idea how to follow-through. I am good at finding things that interest and excite me, but I can never seem to complete the process of seeing the design and doing something with it. It makes me a good hypothesizer, but not a good “conclusionist.”
So when I watched this movie, I felt anger first. Then I had the familiar feeling of wanting to do something about it—the same as when I watched “The Cove” and felt a deep drive to stop the whalers that were slaughtering dolphins. I wanted to go back to school, get a PhD in economics and somehow change the financial system as soon as I possibly could. Now, an hour later, I see that I probably shouldn’t alter the course of my life over one 120 minute documentary.
I do think it’s important for as many people to see it as possible. I’m not a fact checker, so I can’t speak to the film’s accuracy on every point. I’m just a hypothesizer that thinks the case made should be heard by people who will actually do something about it. And when they do, hopefully I’ll be able to learn how to do something too.
