Actor John Cusack has written a new movie titled "War, Inc." about the current state of the military/industrial complex. You can read about it on Huffington Post, and check into a truly crucial conversation between Cusack and writer Naomi Klein about her new book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." They discuss in lengthy detail the jobbing-out of war and disaster response to private companies like Blackwater: "...disasters are dress rehearsals for a sci-fi vision of corporate rule -- it's not just that disaster response is being privatized, it's that in places like Baghdad and New Orleans, the public sphere is disappearing completely and there is no plan to bring it back. This is the warfare state..." (Klein)

It's truly a stretch to say this topic belongs in this blog tangentially attached to community-based art. But I am interested in the way many Hollywood (commercial) artists are inserting themselves into the political struggles of our times by trying to make big-budget movies for social change. Whether they change anything remains to be seen, but I have been waiting for several years for somebody to tackle the monster, underlying issue of war/disaster contractors for hire -- mercenaries. They have been called "al Queda for the good guys."

Catch up with the Cusack-Klein dialogue here

   

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