This film pushes one viewpoint to the exclusion of all others, and attempts to manipulates the emotions of the viewer with music, and evocative portraits of ethnically diverse people.
I actually agree with much of what is said in the film, but I prefer to form my own opinions, and I prefer real documentaries that allow to the viewer to make up their own mind.
By definition, it is propaganda
If the item shown is a fact, it stops being propaganda. The idea they propose is unavoidable if we are to survive as a civilization.
That being said, i agree, i prefer real documentaries than this. this sounds like zeitgeist all over again.
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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.
The juxtaposition of several images of any kind is by definition a film, and - especially accompanied by music - it is bound to evoke emotions and manipulate the viewer into seeing things in a certain way, depending on the skills of the filmmaker. That's why it's one of the strongest ways to express an idea.
The medium film may be used as propaganda by deliberately omitting certain facts and positioning images in a certain way as to lead the viewer to a conclusion.
What this documentary did was showing cause and effect, and I don't believe we need to be shown the plus side of capitalism (or progress), because we already experience that everyday. The challenge is to foresee the ultimate effect it will have on everything if we would continue 'progressing'.
So manipulation, yeah, it has to be. Propaganda? Not at all.
You were, in some way, rendered incapable of "making up your own mind?"
Two cheers for reductionism!!
No I was not, but my critical thinking faculties were temporarily hindered by some manipulative film-making, and I resented that.
I lol'd .. not insulting you or anything..just that your post struck me as very funny.
Some times manipulation and propaganda can be a good thing. If you try and manipulate someone out of committing suicide or you manipulate someone into letting the hostages go I would say that's fair enough. Rather you disliked the film or not it showed things that we've all seen and that we all know is true and that cannot be refuted.
I can think of a lot worse things to manipulate the common man into doing than saving the earth, himself, and others.
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I have to return some videotapes.
I don't disagree that the film has a certain propaganda feel to it, but if you can put that aside for a moment and consider the facts ... our Earth cannot sustain the current rate of population growth forever ... you have to conclude that we are in big trouble. The point is clear, resources here are finite, but human nature is to use resources at an ever increasing rate to satisfy our wants, for more, bigger, better, faster. Either we begin to attend to it now, or it will attend to itself in a more catastrophic manner. It isn't a fun topic to think about.
TxMike
Make a choice, to take a chance, to make a difference.
I guess after 100+ years of film-making, a documentary would arise that had a biased point of view. It had to happen eventually, right?
/sarcasm
So you think you are smart enough to see through the propaganda, but others will not be. Right!
shareNo, a fact is 2+2=4, or George Washington is the first President of the United State of America, saying that our way of life is unsustainable is an opinion. At the very most it would be a fact achieved by inductive logic.
shareLogic is something we invent after an experience to try to explain it.
Logic does not mean correct or infallible. All human knowledge and
experience is more of less the same, and we do not learn very much
from any of it. When you look at all the places where humans have
lived they have exhausted virtually everyone one of them ... today
is no different except for the domain of our way of life - which covers
the whole planet now. It is by definition unsustainable.
It depends. There is deductive logic (2+2=4) where every step must be 100%, and there are inductive logic where every step must have an over 50% chance of being true. Most logic that we use is inductive. Deductive logic really only applies in mathematics and certain scientific situations.
shareThere's no specific arrangement of facts that would be strictly objective. Any attempt at telling a story is inexorably vowed to be biased and can thus can be qualified as propaganda.
Your own post can be viewed as propaganda since according to your definition "pushing one viewpoint to the exclusion of all others" is a characteristic of this notion.
You are basically knocking on an open door by realizing the obvious: Telling a story is inventing a story.
There is no such thing as a "real documentary" and your idea of forming your "own opinion" is an illusion. The message has always been and will always be the messenger itself.
People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefsī²
And if we agree on the premises that there's no such thing as an objective arrangement of facts, let's agree on the idea that this documentary is not propaganda, but a mere point of view among million others.
People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefsī²