Film Clips, Chapter 11
International Politics and Foreign Policy
Marshall McLuhan: The Global Village
In this CBC program from 1960, Marshall McLuhan—who coined the term “global village”—is interviewed about electronic media, the shrinking of the world, and the way this affects our view of others. Note that, in a film from over 50 years ago, the host speaks of “electronic man” who can “push a button, and the world is theirs.” “Gadgets” in the “appliance” store may have been a half-century-early reference to modern Smartphones and online retailers. Is the “renaissance man” of the book (“it’s all we used to have”) endangered? The commentary in this video is not that different than today.
UK-based independent documentary distributor Journeyman Pictures produced this video depicting the desperate attempts by Mexican illegal immigrants to get into the US. This video is found at Journeyman’s youtube.com channel. Smugglers charge vast sums to traffic migrants seeking work or reunion with loved ones in America. The filmmaker actually travels with the migrants on a five-day trek out of Mexico to witness the journey personally.
Noam Chomsky on the Occupy Movement
MIT professor Noam Chomsky is a prominent advocate against injustice, with a legacy of over 50 years of challenging authority and writing on topics like war, politics, and media. In this guardian.com video, Chomsky discusses the origin and effect of the global Occupy movement. He suggests that the movement is linked to other protests that are decades old, but that it took a different tack than other mass protests.
Discovery Channel—End of the USSR Part 1
Discovery Channel’s documentaries are available on youtube.com. In this first in a series, the end of the USSR is explored in historical and political context. The Cold War pitted the United States and the USSR—along with their respective allies—against each other in rhetorical conflict. Yet that ended “with the stroke of a pen.”