Speak up! Thoughts, reactions, reflections and constructive criticism are always welcome in response to our vids. (The snarkier, the better.) Here’s some recent viewer feedback worth highlighting:
Love it. Argument and form reminiscent of the Zizek RSAnimate video, and this is a good thing. In some ways the video is more rigorous, demonstrating to audiences certain truths about how global commodity markets relate otherwise disparate individuals in a way that is important (we desperately need more public education like this). However, I am worried that the video can be used in the same manner as the checkout stand donation or the fair trade label; if we claim “accountability” as consumers, but do not alter our consumption behaviors (let alone the very matrix in which consumption and production occur), we can have warm feelings of having paid proper penance, as well as being admitted to some special realm of knowledge (meditate on the sordid provenance of this iPad? Check. Now play Bejeweled Blitz). Knowing the relations of dependence and dominance that make possible espresso and iPhones is crucial, but not sufficient.I don’t believe the video suggests it is sufficient… but I suppose the task is to ask ourselves what the next step is. Reducing our consumption and reclaiming skills we now require our subordinates to perform for us seems a start, though someone will inevitably argue this takes shitty jobs from erstwhile sweatshop laborers, leaving them with no wage job at all (and this is presumed a worse state affairs). If you ever figure it out, please make another video this entertaining and cogently presented!
SOURCE: Nick Ziegler from Bakersfield, Calif., via Facebook.
