"The consumer society has destroyed the environment." "Exterminated millions of species of plants and animals." "Poisoned the seas the rivers and the lakes." "Polluted the air." "Filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other harmful gases." "Destroyed the ozone layer." "Exhausted our oil, coal and gas reserves and rich mineral resources." "Exterminated our forests and destroyed their own." "So what is left for us?" "Underdevelopment." "Poverty." "Dependence." "Underdevelopment." "Debt." "Uncertainty." "For the superdeveloped societies the problem is not growth but distribution." "Not only amongst themselves but amongst everybody." "Sustainable development is impossible without fairer distribution amongst all nations." "After all, mankind is one great family all sharing the same destiny." "Given today's severe crisis, we're facing an even worse future that will never enable us to solve the economical, social and ecological tragedy of a world more and more out of control." "Something must be done to save mankind." "A better world is possible!" "Property damage, property destruction..." "Those who have come here to demonstrate peacefully have not been able to do so because of certain individuals with a quasi-professional dedication to violence." "Property damage is not violent." "You can't violate a building or a window." "It's very different to us than the question of violence." "That isn't violent, unless you're advocating attacking individuals which we do not do." "Murderers...!" "The elite class was panicking after Seattle especially." "They were sort of looking for the reasons." "And the only name you can point at was John Zerzan." "If you're looking for a mind behind the movement it's definitely John Zerzan." "He has written a book, saying that to save the world we have to go back to the stone-age." "And the way to get there is to destroy the industry and everything." "I find it kind of curious or strange that I've been called the architect of the tactic of property damage or Black Block activity." "That certainly isn't true." "Zerzan lives a modest life, and for a long time his only income..." "He was making money by giving his own blood." "We're trying to encourage just the questioning." "Why do people go out there and try to protest or try to do something?" "That isn't mindless violence." "The mindlessness is sitting there, doing dope, watching MTV and then you go get a job and just shlap along." "To me that's violent." "There's more and more signs everywhere that the life of consumerism is really not a satisfying life." "We cannot let the terrorist achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't..." "Where people don't shop." "Where people don't shop." "The will to consume terrorises you." "We're terrorised into being consumers." "We have the freedom to choose between brand A and brand B..." "That's about it for freedom." "We cannot let the terrorist achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't we don't conduct business." "Where people don't shop." "Yeah, I think there's too much stuff." "To constantly work and constantly consume." "It's madness." "It's destroying everything and it just has to go." "I see very little that's worth preserving." "I see no value or health in maintaining this system." "To get all these things is a matter of coercion." "People are forced to be in the mines and on the assembly lines." "Without these things we don't have all this stuff." "A world of things that we're supposed to strive after all of our lives." "I think no-one seriously embraces it, but the inertia carries it forward." "It has to be stopped." "It has to be destroyed." "They walk the streets exposed to the constant poison of adverts sowing the seeds of fantasy, illusion and the desire for impossible consumption." "We will have a new world." "Where people don't shop." "The will to consume terrorises you." "I think that young people today don't have any future." "I think everybody in the world now can feel can feel the power of these large multinational corporations who are really starting to rule the world." "These large multinational corporations spending 400 billion dollars a year trying to sell us fast food and cars, then of course that has a huge impact on us." "The 30 second TV spot is the most powerful piece of communication that human beings have ever come up with." "You..." "are sitting there in your chair." "Passive, nothing to say." "And outside are smart people making fantastic TV shows and commercials..." "They are the powerful producers of information and meaning." "You are the passive consumer of that meaning." "And the meaning isn't even good." "It's just propaganda for consumer culture." "You think happiness is to buy more and more, at Christmas especially." "Let's go out into the malls and really buy stuff, you know?" "The customer can choose a body type and head type." "Then they choose the colour of the skin the kind of make-up, including lip colour how much eye-shadow and eye-liner." "They choose the eye colour." "The hair colour, the hair style, fingernails, pretty much everything." "They can pick exactly what they want." "The difference between our dolls and most love dolls you see is obvious." "We use Hollywood special effect-type techniques to make these dolls." "If we go in here I can show you five of them." "This is head-type no. 3." "It goes with certain bodies." "Different heads and bodies match." "This is head-type no. 2." "This is head-type 6." "She doesn't have any hair at the moment." "This is another head." "Head 7..." "This is head 4... and head 8." "We just came out with a male doll." "And here's one of the male bodies." "He doesn't have his "piece" yet, but..." "If you look over there in the corner there's one." "He's supposed to be bald." "This is a body type 5." "Petite with a very large breast size." "This is one of our newest bodies." "This is body type 2, which is also petite, but with smaller breasts." "But they're still a nice size." "This is body type 4, which is petite with a very small breast size." "And this is another no. 2..." "This is number 1, which is much taller than the others." "This is a super-model type body, very tall and thin for that type of taste." "They're not cheap." "Each is a lot of work, we use expensive materials so you're looking at anywhere between 6 to 7,000 dollars depending on body and if it's female or male." "See, the breasts are soft, and filled with softer silicone." "So they feel much softer than the rest of the body." "It's one of the selling features that seems to interest people." "...the GDP, GDP, GDP one per cent one per cent." "...one per cent." "People are told that the modern technological future empowers people brings people closer together, gives them access to variety..." "We were once told that technology would free people and they wouldn't have to work so much..." "I travel around and I overhear people saying all the time:" ""I've got my beeper, I've got my cell phone, I've got..."" "I can't get away from work at all." "People are on an electronic leash with all these new devices." "They are less and less separate from work and technology." "How we support Bluetooth, how we support 3G..." "It will be possible to stay at home and work just video-conferencing with your fellow workers." "The computer will be the best tool for letting people socialise." "This is certainly a tool that can bring people together more than isolate them." "Modern technology favours distancing over closeness efficiency over playfulness..." "Variety..." "I'd like to see a gigantic project of dismantling." "Of getting rid of all this stuff." "Of tearing up the freeways and roads." "Getting rid of all this stuff that rests on the destruction of nature that separates us from nature, that has people on this treadmill to constantly work and constantly consume." "It's madness." "It's destroying everything and it just has to go." "The average North American consumes 5 times more than the Mexican." "10 times more than a Chinese person." "And 30 times more than a person from India." "Ten..." "Developers, developers, developers..." "Nine..." "I think everybody in the world now can feel..." "Eight..." "Feel the power of these large multinational corporations." "Many of these companies are much more powerful than even governments." "Seven..." "The first world..." "Six we are 20 per cent of the people of the world." "Yet we consume 80 per cent of the world's resources." "This level of consumption is simply not sustainable." "If we continue to consume at this rate then eventually we're going to hit the wall." "Five..." "If we're too stupid to listen..." "Four to the early-warning signals the planet is sending us..." "Three it'll be a terrible era and it may be centuries before the planet heals." "Two..." "There'll be a global economic collapse." "One..." "There'll be a global economic collapse." "Zero." "Ignition." "Lift off!" "What rubbish!" "The behaviour of many leaders as they watch their model economies collapse like a house of cards is truly repugnant!" "Cuba does not promote consumerism!" "Long live socialism!" "Fatherland or death!" "We shall overcome!" "SAVE:" "CONSUME ONLY THE NECESSARY" "You have a ration card with all the things you can get from the bodega." "This is rice, these are beans, this is oil, cooking oil of course sugar, soap, washing soap, and there also might be toothpaste." "You can have everything." "This is meat, this is bread..." "You can see we have daily bread." "Every single day, every single month." "January, February, March..." "So, this is what it is." "You have this card, you go to the "bodega" and every month they give you a quota according to the ration system." "I think it's a very good system to make everyone have at least their basic needs covered." "And now our supreme leader:" "Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz!" "Fidel's might puts the Yankees to flight!" "Fidel's might puts the Yankees to flight!" "Fidel's might puts the Yankees to flight!" "Distinguished guests." "Fellow countrymen..." " Rice." " Beans." " Rice and beans." " Rice, beans." "For a Cuban travelling, it's a really big thing." "I went to Europe with a letter of invitation from a friend." "The first time I went to a supermarket, I couldn't close my mouth." "Everything was a big shock." "There is so much of everything." "Apples, pears, perfume, nice perfume nice shampoo, trainers." "That's how it was." "I had a good time, I really did!" "We call it pasta de dientes." "It's called Perla." "Everyone knows it." "You don't need to put it on any more." "Cuba does not promote consumerism." "Cuba has no advertising whatsoever." "Cuba, our country, is by far the most democratic country on the planet." "In England I never ate beans." "I didn't want to eat beans." "I said, "I don't want beans." "I want something else"." "The first thing I did was go to McDonald's." "I wanted to see McDonald's." "I wanted..." "Ay, Dios mío!" "...a SuperMac, a big, big, Big Mac!" "And watching TV, and changing channels, and eating..." "I came home, 180 pounds. 180 pounds!" "So much food!" "Eating, again and again!" "I was always hungry my body was asking for more!" "Eating and watching television channels." "Music." "Music programmes..." "McDonald's, Burger King..." "What rubbish!" "The global economy today is a giant casino!" "Christmas seems to have come early to Wall Street this year." "The increasingly absurd internet stocks reached a new high yesterday." "Spray has 50 employees of the Nintendo generation who know all about internet and who work for the fun of it." "Svante is typical of the information society." "At only 19 his work in the industry often takes him to San Francisco." "Roughly 1 or 2 million." " 31/2 million." " 5 million." " About 10 million." " 14 million." "18 million..." "Deep down, I hate money, and I don't have to think about it any more." "Funny enough, half my time goes into finding ways to get rid of my money." "It's all too easy." "I've got all the time I want all the money I want." "I haven't got any problems." "I sometimes really miss the cheap life like hell." "To think it'd be so hard to spend money." "I can go abroad..." "There are so many simple ways to spend money." "It's like:" ""No problem, come with me baby..."" "But as I know it's not that easy, all my energy is turned inward." "Which forces me even deeper into myself, and I sit and..." "I'm just empty." "I want to find a purpose to it all." "Fill myself with something." "Funny enough, half my time goes into finding ways to get rid of my money." "My mum said to me yesterday:" ""I wish you'd never got that money"." ""What are you saying?" - "I just wish you'd never got that money!"" "1 million." "2 million." "31/2 million." "5 million." "About 10 million." "14 million." "18 million..." "It was just constant excess, and you got used to it." "A money-go-round that just got out of control and in retrospect it all just seems so idiotic." "Who wants that really?" "Nobody." "I can buy a nice flat, and sit there, taking it easy." "And then I can meet a girl who I can impress with my flat." "I could say: "My darling, let's get married and buy a house"." "And then we have kids and then - oops, it's all over." "Oops, it's all over." "I sometimes really miss the cheap life like hell." "18 million." "14 million." "10 million." "5 million." "31/2 million." "2 million." "1 million." "1 million." "1..." "A comfortable existence, a career, all the promises of material well-being are rather empty." "Quite a few people certainly understand that emptiness." "And the severe limits on fulfillment and freedom." "Otherwise they wouldn't do it; they'd say:" ""I'm just gonna get a job and be happy"." "Well, who's happy?" "Ladies and Gentlemen:" "Steve Ballmer!" "Come on!" "Get up!" "Come on!" "I have four words for you:" "I..." "Love..." "This..." "Company!" "Yeah!" "One more time..." "I'm calling for a new ethic." "Developed nations have a duty not only to share our wealth but also to encourage sources that produce wealth." "Why do people go out there and try to protest or do something that isn't mindless violence." "The mindlessness is sitting there, doing dope, watching MTV and then you go get a job and just shlap along." "To me that's violent." "Targeted property damage or property destruction is necessary." "It does break out of the confines of the politics of "politics as usual"." "What do you achieve by holding a sign doing the "protest as usual" stuff?" "I've seen decades of it." "It doesn't do anything." "People pay no attention." "Why should they?" "It's not worthy of it." "But when people fight, that Is something." "It does grab attention and it should, because it's real." "It isn't just a symbolic game of "I feel good." "I have my sign"." "Well, I don't care about that." "If it was valid, if it was not ineffective..." "I'd much rather have a peaceful..." "Nobody is put in danger..." "Nobody gets hurt or arrested." "Nobody gets hit on the head by a cop." "Not even a window is broken." "Ideal." "Except it doesn't work that way." "Property damage..." "Property destruction..." "I'm calling for a new ethic." "Corporate property is the most obvious legitimate target in my view." "Banks, expensive stores, and chains like Starbucks and so on." "People understand that as part of the global system, as part of this encroaching, standardised, destructive form that is wiping out all differences, all freedom." "People for 2 million years didn't destroy the natural world." "They didn't have war." "They had leisure time and so on." "That's what primitivism refers to in a way." "And to me that's very inspiring." "In this new world..." "In this new world..." "In this new world, the people would get back their own culture again." "We will have a new set of values." "There will be a paradigm shift." "A big global mindshift, where people will suddenly say:" ""I don't want a fancy car"." "Where people will suddenly say:" ""I don't want another Big Mac"." "Where people will suddenly say:" ""I don't want to wear "any Diesel jeans"." "Where people will suddenly say:" ""I want to have a simple, fulfilling life"." "Where people will suddenly say:" ""I want to have a simple, fulfilling life"." "I want something else." "...a simple, fulfilling life." "English subtitles:" "Neil Betteridge (c) Sveriges Television AB 2003"