feeling helpless

Natalie and I went to UCSD last night to see a free showing of The Corporation, a documentary film about the evils of corporate greed and wealth in our rapidly declining world.

I have to say, although the film ended on a somewhat positive, activist note, I've never had anything make me feel more hopeless.

And I'm glad I drink soy milk.

With interviews from both sides of the capitalist fence (ranging from my sugar daddy Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore to consultants for the Fraser Institute and corporate spies), the film pretty effectively dissected the harm done to human health, animal wellfare, and our environment. It was almost too much to handle at times- the sense of humor of the movie coming on strong in the first half and dwindling almost to a halt as the subject material got darker and darker- that I felt pretty hopeless. Fetal position hopeless. If the election didn't make me want to leave the country for more progressive climes, this movie did.

Which is not to say you shouldn't see it. Go see it. Do it. Applaud the wonderful man that is Ray Anderson.

And then read Derrick Jensen's The Culture of Make-Believe.

I was feeling pretty and spiffy in my new clothes yesterday, since it's been ages since I've had anything new. Now I just feel tainted and complicit- what's a Gap whore to do? How do we make the companies we love represent our interests environmentally and in humanitarian ways?

[psst- You can start with Buy Nothing Day. Or- What's your Ecological Footprint? Mine is 19.1 acres- Jay-sus!- 75.8 % of the average American.]