Midas' capitalism or a trampled social contract

The longer I think about the documentary "Breaking Social" (directed by Fredrik Gertten), the more I disagree with the Polish translation of the title ("New Social Agreement"). What we experience in King Midas' capitalism is simply a denial of any social agreement – alternatively like the announcement of a fresh political and economical tyranny that can accelerate and deepen technological processes.

"Breaking Social" was available as part of the 20th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival. Swedish documentary movie is besides available as part of the MDAG online edition, which runs until 4 June. It is not an outstanding film, but it stands out with focus of perspective. And a multi-culturalism that, on the 1 hand, better captures global processes, deciding the destiny of billions of people, on the another hand, allows a better grasp of the problems faced by circumstantial communities and the individuals rooted in them.

“Breaking Social” talks about a broken social agreement. Or a broken society, a broken community. Contracts / society trampled in the name of profits comparatively few, but influential elite.

Not only in the celebrated 1 percent – the authors of the movie show how political, industrial, financial elites participate in the profits thus achieved. And why – at least any – it pays to participate in this global process, which in rule besides has very local effects.

There is so no fresh social agreement – due to the fact that what replaces the erstwhile consensus between the people and the elite is built with force – symbolic, economic, legislative, military/police. Although the authors of the movie effort not to deprive viewers of optimism – intertwining the communicative of a leftist Chilean activist and enjoying our eyes the emotion and joy of a rebellious dancer, the informing is truly strong – the capitalism of King Midas, who turns everything into evil, killing what gives life, inactive wants more and more. Even if he has to halt his appetites locally.

Who are the heroes and heroines of Breaking Social? Christian Smalls is the president and founder of the Amazon trade union. We see him at the occupation erstwhile an angry, fired individual tells him about working conditions at the company. As 1 commentator says in "Breaking social":

Jeff Bezos, erstwhile his property reached $200 billion, shot himself into space for 11 minutes, for $5.5 billion. With this money, Bezos could equip his own workers with protective equipment, rise their salaries, let them to take paid wellness leave. Instead, he spent money shooting himself into space.

And erstwhile he returns to Earth, he tells us that the view was great, and then thanks Amazon's laborers for their work, due to the fact that in the end they paid for his journey. He is aware of where his money comes from. At the same time, he believes that his cosmic lie is true, that he has his part in the advancement of civilization and that even a magazine individual who earns $15 or $16 an hr and barely manages to feed his family, possibly spends a fewer hours a day commutes to work, that this individual will think, “Oh, it’s me up there. I'm going with Jeff Bezos.”

photo from the movie “Breaking Social”

American author Sarah Chayes, author of the book “Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security” says that her investigation on corruption began with countries specified as Afghanistan, Honduras and Nigeria. She later discovered that the corrupt and corrupt mechanisms discovered there were besides perfectly suited to the description of the modern United States. Chayes lives in West Virginia, destroyed by the mining industry.

It talks about the "contagion of resources" – in countries specified as Angola or Venezuela, natural goods are taken over by corrupt networks and exploited in a way that only causes losses to local communities.

He bitterly adds: “My neighbors do not vote. They see that the Democratic Party-representing West Virginia Senator is simply a coal baron and supports government favourable to coal companies." This allows him – he adds – to redirect public resources to friendly law firms that prepare laws beneficial to large business, not to the local community.

Jennifer Craig, a South Carolina public school teacher, reports that in 2017, the school staff learned that wellness insurance contributions would increase considerably. However, earnings remained at the same level. Teachers and teachers make extra money as Uber drivers, work in shops and restaurants at the second stage. A wave of protests broke out. Craig says: “We must support this fight; others must know that this is not a individual failure. We're mediocre due to the fact that the strategy is flawed. erstwhile others realize it, they will act too.” And he adds – we have been disappointed by politicians on both sides, politics is not the solution, we must act bottom-up, build pressure, exert pressure.

Chilean Pablo Laso shows a photograph of 1998. His father and brother bathe on him in the blue as the sky above them is the Choapa River. The photograph was taken by their mother. The man stands in the heat of the day in a dry riverbed, right here in the picture. 12 years of drought has done its job. The river was taken by his community mining manufacture and large avocado and citrus plantations. The local community only has water for 20 minutes a day. The farmers there lost their income. And the intent of surviving on your own land. A young female from there, Ivanna Olivares Miranda, says: “We live in an injustice due to the fact that we do not decide our own territory. We don't decide what we eat or what we grow. This law has been taken from us. Everything controls capital’.

And 1 more thing – “Success” is coming to an end. A controversial tv series about a household of American media magnate shows the cresus like the capricious gods on Olympus. I am not certain how actual this image is, though many of his intuitions, concerning even the alienation of financial elites and the deficiency of any sense of work for the common good, and at the same time their exquisite littleness, can be true. "Breaking Social" focuses alternatively on networks of multiple links between large capital, global and national public institutions, people of power, elites of laws that let triumphs of Midas capitalism. Its victims are average people and the full planet – due to the fact that it is them that the modern small gods feed. A broken agreement, a trampled community gradually drains conventional democracy. The people behind this are far more dangerous for all of us than alleged populists, of whom we are happy to make boys to beat in front of our eyes.