WHY WE FIGHT

  

WHY WE FIGHT

     Here is the answer:

History has an inherent inevitability.  Stability and internal peace of great empires brings prosperity, which in turn leads to a population growth.  This population growth eventually leads to over-population.  Over-population, in turn, creates a strain on resources for the poor.  With more people competing for a fixed number of jobs, wages go down.  With more people competing for a set amount of housing, rents increase.  At first this leads to great wealth for the upper class but it also creates more of them.  This in turn leads to greater competition among the upper class and the same cycle that was found in the lower class becomes apparent in the upper class.  In order to prevent the collapse of the upper class two things must occur:  1) the numbers of the lower class must be reduced and 2) there must be new jobs created for the remaining lower class in order to appease them.  The problem is more complex than this because if supply increases without a similar gain in demand then prices plummet; in short what is needed is infinite demand.  While this may sound like a pipe dream there is a product that has infinite demand:

  munitions.  The upper class is able to do this because there is one difference between the two groups, access to the State.  While the lower class are disenfranchised and oppressed, and thus lack access to the State, the upper class compose the State and thus the State is at their mercy.  The upper class thus turns to the State for employment and help.  This increase in expenditures along with a decline in tax revenue eventually causes the State to collapse.  With the collapse of the State comes a collapse of law and order and freed from the restraints of the state civil war among the elites break out along with popular rebellion about the commoners.
This is the message of this film.  Of course the film cannot come out and say this because if it did its producer would be called a lunatic or worse thrown in jail for something; now that tricky problem of warrants and evidence of wrongdoing have been abolished.  In order to convey this message it employs the following tried and true formula for a documentary.

1. Use of crackpots

Individuals with crazy ideas and conspiracy theories who also have Phd’s are used to state the overall idea of the documentary.  Of course, no one really believes these individuals because they are deemed to be nuts so we move on to step 2.

1. The use of disgruntled individuals

In this step former military officers and sons and daughters of famous people who have ideas against the perceived mainstream ideas of their institutions and parents are used.  Since these people have a relationship to famous people and have worked in these institutions they have more authority.  The ultimate step is step 3.

1. The use of the opponent

This is the step made famous by Michael Moore.  What one does is simply let the opposition state their opinions.  What one hopes is that this individual makes some ridiculous or illogical statement that will further the agenda of the film.

This, in short, is how to make a documentary.  There is a problem with all of this, of course.  Outside of the problem of neutrality is the problem of apathy.  
     In a post modern world there is no such thing as truth, just a whole bunch of narratives.  The mere fact that a liberal states a position does not make it true; there is no truth.  What must one do in this new environment then?
     One must simply construct a film that forces individuals to think.  This is done through breaching experiments; the use of everyday objects and images in unusual circumstances and ways.  By removing objects from their everyday contexts it forces the individual to rethink these objects.  
     We live in a world in which truth no longer exists.  In this world we must create works of art that not only defy normal conventions but shatter them.  We must say to ourselves, “what would Joe Sixpack do here” and then proceed to do not only the exact opposite of what Joe Sixpack would have thought but something Joe Sixpack could not have even fathomed.

Tags: Why we fight, Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki