Our Brand Is Crisis

Very well-done documentary on the export to Bolivia of an Americanised version of what French philosopher Bernard Stiegler calls "telecracy". The point here is that the performativity (in the Austinian sense) of marketing is not only destructive of democracy, but of political desire in general, if not indeed of desire as such. And that this exhaustion of desire amounts to a more or less unendurable form of psychic and collective existence, culminating in turn in other consequences.

A reminder to all that the fairy tale version of global politics forced fed to us (Americans) is for the most part a manipulative crock of shit.

James Carville and Skelator -- separated at birth?

"Our Brand is Crisis looks to remind well-meaning people like Carville and Rosner to put the humanity in brand marketing." - Ed Gonzalez

It's tempting to view "Crisis" as proof that democracy isn't actually a miracle corrective to all the world's problems. I think a more accurate reading is that it demonstrates that American-style democracy, stoked by focus groups and devious language parsing and negative campaigning, is downright poisonous. We've become immune to its harshest effects through well-administered doses of cynicism. In a place like Bolivia, there is a dashed expectation that promises will yield corresponding results.