Added: December 21, 2006 From: anticonsumer Pria Viswalingam considers whether we... Pria Viswalingam considers whether we are now completely bogged down in a mire of meaningless self-indulgence, and whether we do really need iPods, plasma screen TVs, Brazilian waxes and self-navigating 4WDs to achieve happiness. He asks if family incomes have never been higher in the western world, property values are soaring, if conspicuous consumption and material wealth have never been so evident, why are we so unhappy?
It is because we are enslaved by a world of cradle to grave marketing and unbridled capitalism, where we are trapped in a credit spiral, and have no confidence in a society that grows more inward, self-interested and uncaring every day. Decadence will provide a few keys to how we can ultimately escape the cycle of pointless consumerism to achieve a more meaningful way of life.
Pria reflects on how Western modern life was viewed by the East when he was growing up in Asia, and how this has changed over the last several decades, by focusing on the elements of money, sex, democracy, education, family and God. "A broad education, free thought, big shiny cities, passionate democracy...undaunted imagination" are some of the elements of Western culture which the East aspired to when Pria was a child but, he says, these values are diminishing. Have the great Western attributes decayed in today's world -- a world characterised by materialism, individualism and mindless consumerism?
ourownpriv@tebinladen is a film about understanding the creation of the persona of Osama bin Laden as a phenomenon of the interplay between history, politics, global economics and the media. The film highlights the historical background that led to the fatal link between post-Cold War politics and the emergence of new forms of terrorism that succeeded in establishing their own economy. It traces the connection between privatization, deregulation and free market and the globalization of terrorism.
OUR OWN PRIVATE BIN LADEN examines the complicity between economic structures of "terror" and "the war on terror," their interdependencies, and the creation of the Bin Laden industry as a consequence.
The film explains why the world after September 11, 2001 is less the result of a stray act of terror but the consequence of a series of fatal decisions made from 1945 onwards. (more) (less) Category News & Politics
Paquistão.
Madri, Espanha.
Terrã.
Cairo, Egito.
Síria.
Teerã.
Beirute, Líbano.
