European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

The Power of Communication (ALD)

by ATinNM
Fri Jul 6th, 2007 at 11:00:15 PM EST

(ALD = A Lazy Diary)

I was rummaging through the internet and ran across something that blew my mind.

It was a review of Michael Moore's new film, Sicko

Let me start with quotes from the review (which can be found in full here.

Long time readers of this site no doubt know that I live in Texas. As everyone knows there's no more conservative state in the Union than here. And I don't just live in Texas; I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

Sicko started; the stereotypical Texas guy sat down behind me and never stopped talking. He talked through the entire movie... and I listened. The first ten to twenty minutes of the film he spent badmouthing Moore to his wife and snorting in disgust whenever MM went into one of his trademark monologues. But as the movie wore on his protestations became quieter, less enthusiastic. Somewhere along the way, maybe at the half way point, right before my ears, Sicko changed this man's mind. By the forty-five minute mark, he, along with the rest of the audience were breaking into spontaneous applause. He stopped pooh-poohing the movie and started shouting out "hell yeah!" at the screen.

When the credits rolled the audience filed out and into the bathrooms. At the urinals, my redneck friend couldn't stop talking about the film, and I kept listening. He struck up a conversation with a random black man in his 40s standing next to him, and soon everyone was peeing and talking about just how fucked everything is.

Outside the restroom doors... the theater was in chaos. The entire Sicko audience had somehow formed an impromptu town hall meeting in front of the ladies room.

The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone's attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. "If we just see this and do nothing about it," he said, "then what's the point? Something has to change." There was silence, then the redneck's wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else's email, promising to get together and do something... though no one seemed to know quite what.

In all my thirty years on this earth, I have never ever seen any movie have this kind of unifying effect on people. It was like I was standing there, at the birth of a new political movement. Even after 9/11, there was never a reaction like this, at least not in Texas.

My first thought was an incredulous, "Damn."

My next thought was to write this diary.

There's no deeply insightful third thought here. Only a brief message to the the AMA, the pharmaceutical giants and medical industries of the US who have held the US population hostage for so many decades, to wit, and viz., "neener-neener-neener, eat it suckers."

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The Power of Communication (ALD) | 29 comments (29 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (none / 1)

Some states are taking matters into their own hands. I read earlier today (I think on DKos) that Wisconsin might have something brewing in their state lege? California's got a proposed bill, SB 840, that was apparently vetoed once (thanks, Arn) but has been revived. The bill would pretty much get rid of the insurance companies (the state would not take over the doctors' offices, though, just take the place of the insurers). I think I will be writin' some letters to state reps in the next couple of weeks. Yeeehaaa! =D

"You can't be a successful crook with a dishonest face, now, can you?" -The Fourth Doctor

by lychee (lychee9393 A yahoo D com) on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 12:55:07 AM EST

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (4.00 / 2)

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=75839

A Massachusetts law that requires all state residents to obtain health insurance took effect Sunday, USA Today reports (Appleby, USA Today, 7/2). Under the law, residents with annual incomes below the federal poverty level are eligible for no-cost care. Residents with annual incomes up to three times the poverty level can enroll in state subsidized plans, while those with incomes more than three times the poverty level can choose their own coverage from new, lower-cost private plans if they are not offered coverage through their employer (LeBlanc, AP/Long Island Newsday, 6/30). Officials estimate that 60,000 people will be exempt from the insurance requirement because they will not qualify for subsidies but will not be able to afford other coverage options (Belluck, New York Times, 7/1).
[...]

by Laurent GUERBY on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 05:43:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (none / 1)

Note that there's nothing in that article about Mass. requiring the insurance companies to actually cover anything.

Plus, just looking at income isn't going to be enough. Someone paying off student loans and a previous healthcare bill might not have the actual money after those bills and after taxes to pay for insurance, even if they make enough not to qualify for the state-subsidized plans.

"You can't be a successful crook with a dishonest face, now, can you?" -The Fourth Doctor

by lychee (lychee9393 A yahoo D com) on Sun Jul 8th, 2007 at 04:19:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

The shop heard round the world (none / 1)

from the comments to that article:

"Get your Republican party to enact a $10 an hour minimum wage by Dec. 2007, and until you do, we will not go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.

It was from someone signed 'the Liberal Democratic Party of America', so we know where they stand. However, this is how things are going to change - when people stop, or threaten to stop, buying stuff.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 01:07:00 AM EST

Re: The shop heard round the world (none / 1)

There used to be Mutal Insurance companies that were responsive to their customers - strange notion, 'eh? They have been eliminated by the majors through buy-outs or predatory competition.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 12:30:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The shop heard round the world (none / 1)

'Mutual' is an important word in the global context. We are all, after all, sitting on this rock orbiting through space and there are no guarantees of tenancy ;-)

Hey, does anyone have the deeds to Planet Earth? I thought not.....

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 01:10:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The shop heard rounde world (none / 1)

Hey, does anyone have the deeds to Planet Earth?

Mother Nature enters stage left with a broom shouting "shoo !! shoo !!"

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Jul 8th, 2007 at 03:26:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The shop heard round the world (none / 1)

I believe that "predatory" behaviour can work two ways.

If one were to set up a mutual as a "Guarantee Society" on a partnership basis (which is what Muslims do on a massive basis incidentally, because conventional insurance is impermissible or "haram" - they call mutual insurance "Takaful") then it is a simple matter to work with a managing/operating partner.

The shipping industry has long had what is called "P&I Clubs" insuring hulls mutually in this way with managing agents such as Thomas Miller.

The innovation I would add to the above is an LLP/LLC "Capital Partnership" enterprise model, of course. Any necessary Capital will be obtained from investors in the future cash flow.

The predatory outcome is that the premiums a mutualised "Not for Loss" operation charges can always undercut those charged by the toxic "for profit" variety.

It's called the "Cooperative Advantage".

Where it gets interesting in the medical area is the "partnerising" of hospitals run "For Profit" to create a partnership between the community of people using the service, and the community of people providing it.

Basically the deal is of a "Community Buy Out", funded by selling future revenues to local investors.

The deal for the staff is this.

"You've got $y to play with this year. We want this (agreed) level of care. You get to keep x% of any savings you make in administration, innovative treatments, preventative measures, and so on.

And its up to you how you organise yourselves and share it out.

If you see new treatments, or need capital expenditure on new kit, lets agree the investment case and how to fund it,and the effect on premiums into the Pool.

For the existing investors it's great too, because they get an "exit" at a level they would otherwise never get.

The reason for this is that the Community's "cost of Capital" ( a reasonable "index-linked" return) is less than the daft rates demanded by the greedy bastards in the City and Wall Street.

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 02:02:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The shop heard round the world (4.00 / 3)

There used to be Mutual Insurance companies in the upper Mid-West owned and run on exactly the lines you have laid-out. Typically the policies were available through local "Son's of {insert name of a Scandinavian country here}" which kinda explains the whole thing.

The "predatory" aspect of the competition was the majors came in an sold policies below the correct risk-price. Illegal as hell but the regulators didn't do their job.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 02:57:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The shop heard round the world (4.00 / 2)

Well, in the same way that some car insurers employ their own repair shops, I think that it is necessary to merge the health insurance pool and the people who actually get the money from the health insurers thereby cutting out or merging TWO (conflicting) sources of "rentier" drain from the system.

It can be done, for sure, and it is innovative use of LLC's etc that make it possible.

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 03:03:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The shop heard round the world (none / 1)

That's what makes it so damn frustrating. There's no objective reason for the US to be so screwed-up. Less than one percent of the US population benefits yet most of the population gives one the "lights are on but no one's home" stare when alternatives are presented.

<sigh>

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 03:46:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The shop heard round the world (none / 1)

They do it because they can. No other reason is needed.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Jul 8th, 2007 at 05:12:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A Lazy Answer (ALA) (4.00 / 3)

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 06:27:02 AM EST

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (none / 1)

"If we just see this and do nothing about it," he said, "then what's the point? Something has to change."

Somewhere in cyberspace, the ghost of de Chardin is smiling.

by budr on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 08:13:42 AM EST

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (none / 1)

You move people to political action one person at a time, one step at a time. A slow process, it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of patience. But if it's done then you win.

The other way, the 'Vanguard of the People' method, is, well, we've seen what that comes to.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 12:21:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (4.00 / 4)

A comment from the review by RuthAnn:

I also saw "Sicko" this weekend ... and noticed a similar phenomenon in my Georgia (metro-Atlanta) location. Everyone was talking about what they could do to fix this problem.

From a diary on Kos after a showing in Maine:

What was of interest was what happened afterward: first the applause, but then the number of people that milled around the theatre to talk about it, some literally just outside the theatre door.

Anecdotal evidence, interesting nevertheless.

What this implies carries over to a broader point. Circumstances in the US have made support for a national healthcare system a minority, partisan, Left position. The healthcare companies who have gotten fat, rich, and happy under the current scheme have been able to control debate. Anyone in the US who isn't a fool or a tool knows the US healthcare system is non-responsive as everyone has either had a run-in with the system or knows someone who has had a run-in with the system.

Mr. Moore was able to counter decades of corporate propaganda with one film. With his film he successfully communicated to the audience, "You're not alone in your experience."

This is a powerful message.

A famous social-psychology experiment found when a person thinks their assessment of reality is not supported by other people their stress level: doubt and self-questioning (stress,) spikes. The stress leads to anomie undercutting the psychological underpinnings of the social and political mass movement necessary to take on the companies.

Staying within the broader point, the success of the film (attendence is rising and the film is being shown in more theaters, unheard of in the US for a documentary) indicates the Left is being defeated in political debate because we don't use all the tools to engage in debate.

The budget for Sicko was $9 million (US.) That's a lot of money but it's nothing for a mass-distribution, 'Hollywood' film. With the recent advances in digital film equipment the production costs of making a film have plummetted. It would be nice to know if Mr. Moore used 'old' or 'new' technology to make Sicko and how much of that $9 million was used for advertising and distribution.

Me know nuthin' 'bout film making. Oh, I know you point the camera at what you want the audience to see but methinks it's a wee tad more complicated than that. (I have been given to understand it greatly helps if the subject is in focus, for example.) But I do know film is the single best communication medium we have. To illustrate, from the viewer's perspective the communication is equal as it's one-to-one because of the way the brain processes information; from the film's perspective it's one-to-many and unequal as the exact same message is being transmitted to an audience.

Anyway, I think it's very encouraging to know it's not the message that's being defeated in the modern communication wars and when we 'show up,' as it were, we really can make a difference.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 12:12:33 PM EST

6 rating if allowed ;-) n/t (none / 1)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 03:51:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (none / 1)

It's not just film. TV is getting a lot cheaper to make than it used to be. And there are more channels available - although I'm not sure what the rules are about (what would be perceived as) blatantly partisan media making.

As I've said here before, the new front line isn't the shop floor or the street protest, it's the media machine. So far the Left has been largely useless at doing anything about this. Blogs are a start, but they're no more than that - they're easy to marginalise and can be painted as being outside of the mainstream.

What changes hearts and minds is two things.

A different narrative with viewer identification. Moore is very good at this. But he's less good at the other essential element which is
Constant repetition. The right wins with the PR and the talking points because they're made over and over again. Debate on the left is more about give and take, and also assuming that people don't have five second attention spans. So it's usually considered enough to make a point and then leave it at that. But many people do have five second attention spans, so constant repetition is essential.

I'm sure SiCKO is great. But to really change the momentum in the US it's a message that needs to be repeated as often as possible by as many different people as possibly, preferably all making the same points in a familiar way.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Jul 8th, 2007 at 05:10:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (none / 1)

These are all good points to which I agree. So I'm going to talk about something slightly off-kilter from your comment. (LOL)

Mr. Moore made a film about a serious problem here in the US and the audience is responding. We don't know, at this point, if it will prove to be a spark igniting a fire, a turning point, or if it will be forgotten in 3 months. All that can be said now is it's a small victory. But it is a victory and I'll take it.

One guy can only do what one guy can do. It is my understanding it takes at least a year to bring a film to market and then another couple of months promoting it. Say a couple of months recover time and we're at 18 months per project. (I hope someone who knows what they're talking about will chime in! ;-) If this is accurate, and I have no reason to claim it is, we need 18 film-makers making films as fast as they can to have one film released per month.

There are other documentary film-makers working away but they don't get the publicity Mr. Moore does. Nor do they get their films screened. The normal documentary in the US shows on 10 to 15 screens before disappearing into DVD-land. Eugene Jarecki made an indictment of the US military-industrial-political system in 2005, Why We Fight. At the height of its run it showed on 64 screens (Whoopie) with a US gross of ~$1.5 million (Whoopie.) The reviews I've seen of the film are complimentary. Sony Classics picked-up the DVD rights so it should be rather good. I don't know. I haven't been able to see it. Has anyone on ET seen it? The winner of the Oscar for 2005 was March of the Penquins. March won the Oscar, grossed ~$78 million, was a huge success, and appeared - after winning the Oscar - at the highest point on 2,506 screens in the US. In my local outlet there are stacks and stacks of copies of the DVD.

I'm not going to cavail MotP was a success as it disseminated information about GW that certainly needed to be broadcast. But I do think the information contained in Why We Fight was, and is, more critical.

So I have to gloss my own argument by adding, those 18 film-makers required to release one film a month have to be really, really, good film-makers who don't stretch the audience too much.

Moral: If you're going to make a 'downer' film include cute fuzzy animals.

and keep the hard information in the background.

I've been focusing on documentaries since the same problems are even more critical in narrative film-making. (Correction requested!) Using the Warren Beatty film Reds as the prototype we discover the driving force, the foreground (?), of the film is the relationship between Jack Reed and Louis Bryant. That's where, if I'm not mistaken, the audience invests, emotionally. The political background, my main interest in the subject, is kept very much as background or stage-setting -- if those are the words I want.

All of the above was written so I could say: we need to encourage "our" film-makers and budding film-makers. Nothing is more discouraging than to shed your blood only to have 12 people show up to fill a 500 seat auditorium. We need to show them that if they tear their guts out making a film there is an audience who will come and be moved by their work.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sun Jul 8th, 2007 at 02:05:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Live Earth (4.00 / 2)

I'm watching it at the moment. Some background stuff to criticize - but much to recommend.

After this there will be few young people in the W*st with an excuse for ignorance.

I'm quite amazed actually that such a 'subversive' event could take place...

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 03:50:30 PM EST

Re: Live Earth (4.00 / 2)

Still watching - I have to say that the commercial creative world have been a bunch of wankers, but tonight they redeemed themselves.

This is the best television I have ever watched. The message was fantastic, the execution brilliant (mostly), but most of all - I am sure enough of the message got through to make a difference to people who can make a difference.

As a logistics exercise it was phenomenal. Yes, it consumes a lot of energy - but it is energy that is a great investment in the future. I am convinced that this will save thousands or millions times more energy than it cost.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 05:12:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Live Earth (3.50 / 2)

From Live Earth website

A landmark audience of viewers from around the world has united at www.LiveEarth.MSN.com to experience the excitement of today's Live Earth concerts and to confront the threat of global warming. As of 3:00 p.m. EDT, MSN had received a total of more than 10 million video streams and has the most simultaneous viewers of any online concert ever.

10 million people? Just from one web-cast site?

Wow.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 05:35:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Live Earth (none / 1)

There's a whole lotta shakin' goin' on!

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 05:43:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Live Earth (none / 1)

What the heck is going on out there in mass-media land?

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 05:57:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Live Earth (none / 0)

Hey, I clicked on the MSN link and ended up watching an advert by Chevy.

Do More. Use Less.

Hey! They've been reading ET!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 06:21:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Live Earth (4.00 / 2)

rg.

Marketing genius.

;-)

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 06:29:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Live Earth (4.00 / 2)

from the website, emphasis added

Live Earth marks the beginning of a multi-year campaign led by the Alliance for Climate Protection, The Climate Group and other international organizations to drive individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve global warming. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is the Chair of the Alliance and Partner of Live Earth.

Multi-year campaign?

The Pepsi Company as a sponsor?

This is all too strange.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 06:08:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (4.00 / 4)

As I noted a few days ago in this link to a set of pew research findings, Americans are more pragmatic than is generally believed. We're all familiar with the myths and framing that get people to promote that which is not in their interests. These myths are all very precariously positioned, though, as propaganda works best when it can't be easily tested. For example the Iraq war is a distant, abstract thing in which the ridiculous propaganda used for its promotion can seem plausible if you are otherwise not paying much attention; whereas if your spouse is dying of cancer and your life savings have been wiped out forcing you into bankruptcy, pro-corporate, pro-private insurance propaganda can't work. You have a direct, factual counterexample of how the system has failed.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 05:15:59 PM EST

Re: The Power of Communication (ALD) (4.00 / 2)

Right.

And then you see a film and find out your experience is shared by millions of others. Suddenly you're no longer alone.

And you have the power to change the way the system works.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Sat Jul 7th, 2007 at 05:44:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The Power of Communication (ALD) | 29 comments (29 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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