Video Clips [top]
Clip 1: Ignacio Ramonet
Clip 2: Oncle Bernard
Clip 3: Oncle Bernard
Clip 4: Omar Aktouf
Clip 5: Noam Chomsky
Synopsis [top]
Drawing upon the thinking and analyses of renowned intellectuals, this documentary sketches a portrait of neo-liberal ideology and examines the various mechanisms used to impose its dictates throughout the world.
Neo-liberalism’s one-size-fits-all dogmas are well known: deregulation, reducing the role of the State, privatization, limiting inflation rather than unemployment, etc. In other words, depoliticizing the economy and putting it into the hands of the financial class. And these dogmas are gradually settling into our consciousness because they’re being broadcast across a vast and pervasive network of propaganda.
In fact, beginning with the founding in 1947 of the Mont Pèlerin Society, neo-liberal think tanks financed by multinational companies and big money have propagated neo-liberal ideas in universities, in the media, and in governments.
This ideology, convinced of its historical and scientific validity – as proven, in particular, by the fall of the Soviet Union – has intoxicated all governments, left and right alike. In fact, since the end of the Cold War, the rate of neo-liberal reforms has increased dramatically. Often imposed with force, either through the structural adjustment plans of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, under the pressure of financial markets and multinationals, or even by outright war, the neo-liberal doctrine has now reached every corner of the planet.
But behind the ideological smokescreen, behind the neat concepts of natural order and the harmony of interests in a free market, beyond the panacea of the “invisible hand,” what is really going on?
Why this title? [top]
The word "snare" has Scandinavian and German roots and literally means "noose". Thus, "ensnare" expresses the ideas of both trap and string that lead to the notion of netting, or network. The neo-liberal Internationale is also made up of a vast, complex and inextricable network that makes its polymorphous voice heard simultaneously in all conceivable arenas: think tanks, educational systems, media, political parties, financial markets, intergovernmental organizations (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Trade Organization, etc.), transnationals, pension funds and other inventment organizations (insurance companies, banks, mutual funds, etc.), partnership unions, etc. Each link in this vast chain relays said doctrine to another link or else directly to the public. The circulation of neo-liberal ideology through all possible modes of dissemination affords it a certain "monopoly on appearances" (as Guy Debord puts it) that ensures its perpetuation and facilitates mass indoctrination. It becomes inescapable.
By releasing this constant flow of propaganda, neo-liberal ideologists cater to the powerful. By denouncing the inefficiency of government and social programs while glorifying the efficiency and infallibility of markets, singing the praises of competition, social inequality and the right to private property - which they claim takes precedent over all other rights - they legitimize the reforms that keep the propertied class in power. Such reforms have been adopted in spades around the world since the early '80s and are still in progress, in spite of a world economic crisis that demonstrates the now-literal bankruptcy of the neo-liberal system. In the West, such reforms have led nations to abandon entire segments of their economy. From the autonomy of central banks directed by unelected officials (who nevertheless set their State's monetary "policy") to the rampant privatization of public health, education, transportation, energy and natural resources, etc., everything has been done to take the citizen's control over their economic destiny out of their hands. And in developing countries, the situation is much worse. The IMF and World Bank, key links in the neo-liberal network, have, through their structural "adjustment" plans, implemented sets of reforms that have devastated entire countries, bleeding them dry. Most of humanity has thus helplessly witnessed the establishment of a new form of colonialism that, while feigning altruism, carries out phenomenal plundering. Praise be the virtues of free trade; on with the veritable extortion of the natural resources of huge territories and the subjugation of entire populations.
And this is how thought and democracy, encircled from all directions by propaganda and reform, have been ensnared by neo-liberalism.
Participants [top]
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is one of the best known, most influential and most quoted intellectuals alive in the world today. Professer Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is considered the founder of generative and transformational grammar. He is also famous for his politics. A fierce critic of media and American imperialism, he has published close to a hundred book, about two-thirds of which are political essays, the other third being linguistics-related. He has also received numerous honorary degrees from the world's most eminent universities and has been awarded many prestigious distinctions. chomsky.info
Ignacio Ramonet
A doctor of semiotics, film critic and, from 1990 to 2008, director of the French monthly, Le Monde diplomatique, Ignacio Ramonet is currently president of the association Mémoire de Luttes. Instigator of the ATTAC movement and the World Social Forum of Porto Allegre, for which he coined the slogan "another world is possible", he is also founder and president of Media Watch Global. In addition to the many Monde diplomatique editorials he has penned over the years, he has published about fifteen books, the most recent of which is the essay, Le Krach parfait - Crise du siècle et refondation de l'avenir. He has earned many international awards for his journalism. medelu.org/spip.php?auteur4
Normand Baillargeon
A professor of pedagogical sciences at L'Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Normand Baillargeon is also a member of the Groupe de Recherche sur L'Éducation et les Musées (GREM). In the '90s, he was a columnist for the Montréal daily, Le Devoir. Since then, he has written articles for various publications (Á Bâbord, Le Couac, Le Monde liberatire, Siné Hebdo, Québec sceptique, etc.), published a number of books (including L'ordre moin le pouvoir - Histoire et actualité de l'anarchisme) and is maintaining a blog site. nbaillargeon.blogspot.com
Susan George
Co-Founder and honourary president of the movement, ATTAC-France, of which she was also vice-president from 1999 to 2006, co-founder and president of the Transnational Institute (Amsterdam), Susan George has also served as president of L'Observatorie de la mondialisation. She helped lead the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and for democratic control of the World Trade Organization (WTO). She has published several dozen articles and many books, the most recent of which is La Pensée enchaînée: Comment les droites laïque et religieuse se sont emparées de l'Amérique.tni.org/george
Omar Aktouf
A management professor at the business school (HEC) of l'Université de Montréal where he is something of a black sheep, founding member of the Centre humanismes, gestions et mondialisation, member of the Groupe d'études et de recherche sur le management et l'écologie (GERME), Omar Aktouf also belongs to several other scholarly societies. An internationally renowned lecturer, he has published dozens of articles and several books, including La Stratégie de l'autruche – Post-mondialisation, management et rationalité économique, and the recent Halte au gâchis: en finir avec l'économie-management à l'américaine. hec.ca/profs/omar.aktouf.html
Oncle Bernard
Oncle Bernard, a.k.a. Bernard Maris, is an economist, economics professor (Université de Paris VIII), writer and journalist for, among others, Charlie Hebdo, where he is assistant editorial director. He also participates in radio broadcasts (France Inter), and television shows (I-Télé and France 5). He has published several books, including Lettre ouverte aux gourous de l'économie qui nous prennent pour des imbéciles, Anti-manuel d'économie, and the recent Capitalisme et pulsion de mort : Freud et Keynes, written in collaboration with Gilles Dostaler. He also has a blog site. radiofrance.fr/franceinter/blog/b/blog.php?id=12
Michel Chossudovsky
An economist and political economy professor at the University of Ottawa, Michel Chossudovsky is the director of the Centre for Research on Globalization. A valued lecturer on the international stage, he is an advisor for developing countries, international organizations and the United Nations. He has published a multitude of articles on economics and geopolitics (for Le Monde diplomatique, The Emperor's New Clothes, L'Aut' Journal, etc.), as well as a number of books, including The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order and America's "War on Terrorism". globalresearch.ca
François Denord
As a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, where he is connected to the Centre de sociologie européenne, François Denord is also on the editorial committees of the magazines, Le Mouvement social and La Revue française de Socio-Économie. At the intersection of sociology and contemporary history, his writing is mainly about the connection between doctrine and economic policy. He has published articles in various periodicals, including Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales and Le Monde diplomatique. He has recently published a book entitled Néo-Libéralisme version française – Histoire d'une idéologie politique. cse.ehess.fr/document.php?id=1062
François Brune
François Brune (real name, Bruno Hongre) is a writer, and was a high-school teacher until his recent retirement. He chose a pseudonym to distinguish his political writing from the didactic works he published under his real name. He has collaborated on a number of periodicals: Combat, Esprit, Le Monde, Le Monde diplomatique, La Décroissance, Casseurs de pub, etc. Co-founder of the association, Résistance à l’agression publicitaire (RAP), he has also published many critical books on advertising and dominant discourse, including Le Bonheur conforme – Essai sur la normalisation publicitaire and Les médias pensent comme moi ! Fragments du discours anonyme. He also has two blog sites, one under each of his names. larbremigrateur-fb.blogspot.com
Martin Masse
Martin Masse is a public-policy advisor and director of the libertarian cybermagazine, Le Québécois Libre. He was also director of publications at the Montréal Economic Institute from 2000 to 2007. He published the book, Identités collectives et civilisation : pour une vision non nationaliste d’un Québec indépendant and translated the international bestseller by Johan Norberg, In Defense of Global Capitalism. From 2006 to 2007, he was political advisor to Canada's Industry minister, Conservative Maxime Bernier, notably on deregulation issues related to the Canadian telecommunications industry. quebecoislibre.org/apmasse.htm
Jean-Luc Migué
An economist, Jean-Luc Migué is one of the greatest international experts on the theory of public choice. A professor at l’Université Laval and then l’École nationale d’administration publique (ÉNAP), researcher for the Bank of Canada and the Economic Council of Canada, he is also a Senior Fellow at the Fraser institute and the Montréal Economic Institute. He is member of the Mont Pèlerin Society and the Royal Society of Canada. He has also been a member of the Canadian Economics Association, the Société Canadienne de Science Économique, the Public Choice Society and the American Economic Association. He has published a dozen books, including, Étatisme et déclin du Québec and Santé publique, santé en danger, as well as numerous articles. quebecoislibre.org/apmigue.htm
Filip Palda
Economist Filip Palda teaches at l’École nationale d’administration publique (ÉNAP). He earned a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago under the direction of Gary S. Becker (“Nobel” prize in economics). He is also Senior Fellow at the Fraser institute. He has published about fifteen books, including, Here the People Rule: A Toolbook for Reforming Democracy, as well as articles in various periodicals. enap.ca/enap-fra/bibliotheque/pub-personnel/publi-palda-filip.html
Donald J. Boudreaux
Donald J. Boudreaux is head of the economics department at George Mason University (Virginia), where he also teaches. With James M. Buchanan (“Nobel” prize in economics), he also directs the Center for Study of Public Choice. He has previously been president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). He has published an impressive number of articles in various periodicals (Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Regulation, Reason, Freeman, American Spectator, the Washington Times, the Journal of Commerce, the Cato Journal, etc.), and frequently contributes to two different blog sites. He has recently published a book entitled, Globalization.gmu.edu/departments/economics/boudreaux/index.html
Production Credits [top]
Producer, Director
Richard Brouillette
Consulting Producer
Esteban Bernatas
Producers NFB-ACIC
Monique Létourneau
Pierre Lapointe
Coordinator NFB-ACIC
Marie-Christine Guité
Production and Post-production Coordinator
Richard Brouillette
Scriptwriter and Researcher
Richard Brouillette
Cinematography
Michel Lamothe
Camera Assistants
Stéphan Menghi
Ivan Gekoff
Mary Anne Janke
Sound recording
Simon Goulet
Additional sound recording
Alexander Gravel
Editor
Richard Brouillette
Original music
Éric Morin
On-line editing and final colour correction
Michel Giroux
Sound mix
Éric Tessier, Studio Harmonie
French subtitles
Richard Brouillette
English subtitles
Kathleen Fleming, Anrà Médiatextes
Film Structure [top]
A Film in Ten Chapters, Divided into Two Major Sections
Part One: Profile of Neo-Liberal Ideology
Chapter 1: Introduction
Ignacio Ramonet recalls two editorials he published in the mid-’90s in Le Monde diplomatique – “Régimes globalitaires” (“globalitarian” régimes) and “La pensée unique”. These articles basically outlined the issues dealt with in the film.
Chapter 2: Origins
François Denord traces the origins of neo-liberal ideology. First, he describes the conditions of its gestation; he then goes on to talk about the two founding acts of the neo-liberal movement: the Colloque Walter Lippmann (1938) and the foundation of the Mont Pèlerin Society (1947), later the mother house of the neoliberal Internationale.
Chapter 3: At the Core of the Neo-Liberal Network - Think Tanks
François Denord explains how the Mont Pèlerin Society grew into a number of associations and think tanks with the essential mandate of propagating neo-liberal ideology in the public sphere so it would be widely adopted. Noam Chomsky explains how think tanks emerged to swing public opinion back to the right, since, in the ‘60s, it had become increasingly antagonistic. Then, we go on to attend a student seminar organized by the Fraser Institute and the Montréal Economic Institute. Here, we hear Filip Palda explain what the limits of government must be, and Donald J. Boudreaux wax eloquent about how industrial capitalism has contributed to cleaning up the environment.
Chapter 4: Brief Liberal Anthology - Libertarianism and the Theory of Public Choice
Martin Masse explains his vision of libertarianism, a philosophy he wholeheartedly embraces which emphasizes individual liberty while advocating the extreme curtailing of State powers. Jean-Luc Migué in turn outlines the theory of public choice, which says that government policy-making is not motivated by collective interest but by the specific interests of various social factions. Masse and Migué trade off, denouncing the inefficiency of the State and the injustice generated by its coercive actions, while praising the right to private property and the efficiency of the free market.
Chapter 5: Critiques
Normand Baillargeon, Noam Chomsky, Susan George, Oncle Bernard and Omar Aktouf appear consecutively on screen to construct a critique of the classic liberal theories espoused by neo-liberals: Adam Smith’s theory of “the invisible hand”, David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantages, John Locke’s concept of right of ownership, etc. Among other things, our commentators maintain that these 17th- and 18th-century theories derived their meaning in the economic context of that distant past, and can no longer be applied to contemporary economy.
Part Two: The Encirclement of Thought and Democracy by Neo-Liberalism
Chapter 6: Propaganda and Indoctrination - Education
Normand Baillargeon talks about shifts in education, which abandoned its role of preparing people for civic life and turned into a vocational training system serving private enterprise. Then, he recalls how government inaction in North America has allowed big business to enter schools, under the pretext of providing educational videos or pedagogical material, and to spread its propaganda to naive, captive audiences. Omar Aktouf then evokes the breakdown of meaning currently pervading society, and alludes to the corruption of teaching, now centered on the job market and turning students into the system’s servant-replicators.
Chapter 7: Propaganda and Indoctrination - The Media
Normand Baillargeon recaps how the Creel Commission, at the origins of modern techniques of manufacturing public consent, has succeeded in imposing its world view, vocabulary, way of thinking, etc. François Brune explains how dominant ideology can impose itself as natural and self-evident. Finally, Ignacio Ramonet explains how media creates “truth” using the equation, “repetition equals proof”.
Chapter 8: Neo-Liberalism or Neo-Colonialism? Strong-Arm Tactics of the Financial Markets
Noam Chomsky explains how financial markets constitute a “virtual parliament” that can dictate to the world’s various governments which policies they must adopt. Oncle Bernard then describes the excesses of over- the-counter transactions, used by private banks to fly under the radar of State control. He then discusses derivative financial products, explaining that a fundamental feature of contemporary capitalism is sustaining risk in order to market it. Then Michel Chossudovsky gives us a visual explanation of how speculative attacks on currencies are carried out, using the example of the Korean won during the 1997 Asian crisis. He lets us know that speculators intentionally use such attacks to take possession of the besieged countries’ entire economy.
Chapter 9: Neo-Liberalism or Neo-Colonialism? Strong-Arm Tactics of the Bretton Woods Institutions, or the Washington Consensus
Omar Aktouf describes six primary measures from the IMF’s and World Bank’s structural adjustment plans: State-expenditure reduction, privatization, currency devaluation, shifting of the national economy towards exports, “getting the prices right”, as well as investment liberalization and reverse wage-parity. He explains the concrete, disastrous effects of these measures on the populations of developing countries. Susan George then explains how the World Trade Organization places itself above all laws and international conventions, dictating its own law and imposing economic deregulation, primarily to the benefit of transnationals.
Chapter 10: Neo-Liberalism or Neo-Colonialism? Strong-Arm Tactics of Military Humanism, or “War is Peace”
Michel Chossudovsky reviews the Dayton Accords, which put an end to the war in Bosnia. He explains how, in the appendices of these agreements, American military officials wrote the Constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina themselves, and how, with no popular base, this Constitution imposed a colonial government by handing the reins of the economy over to foreigners. Noam Chomsky concludes, reminding us that contemporary “military humanism”, with its supposedly altruistic and humanist missions of peace and liberation, actually conceals latter-day wars of conquest.
Bio - Richard Brouillette [top]
Richard Brouillette is a film producer, director, editor and programmer. Starting as a film critic for the Montréal weekly, Voir (1989), he then worked for Québec’s top independent distribution company, Cinéma Libre (1989-1999), which has since folded. He also founded the artist-run center, Casa Obscura in 1993, where he still runs a weekly cine-club. He has produced and directed Too Much is Enough (doc., 111 mins., 1995), for which he won the prestigious Joan Chalmers Award in 1996; Carpe Diem (experimental, 5 mins., 1995) and Encirclement – Neo-Liberalism Ensnares Democracy (doc., 160 mins., 2008). He has also produced six feature- length films, including five documentaries.
Director's Statement [top]
By: Richard Brouillette
As with my previous documentary, Trop c’est assez, this film arose from dissidence.
At first, it was a revolt against the defeat of thought, against the depreciation of life with thought. The conversion of the educational system into a vocational-training system was a primary reason, as was the advent of a society where information reigned, while the development of actual knowledge was outmoded. A picture guided me, an etching by Francisco Goya entitled, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from the series, Los Caprichos.
Then an editorial by Ignacio Ramonet, “La pensée unique”, appeared in the January, 1995, edition of Le Monde Diplomatique. It gradually wove its way through my mind, and the object of my revolt slowly changed, resting instead on the sclerosis of political thought, given that everything is political. Under siege by dogmatic ideology, pluralist political thought had mutated into a single scheme to strip the State of its powers and hand them over to market interests that supposedly knew how to do everything better.
From being merely dominant, the reasoning of the propertied masters had become crushing and irrefragable. Relayed via a tentacular network of propaganda and indoctrination that exploited all conceivable arenas, this pensée unique went unimpeded, especially since the fall of the USSR, and so naturally acquired the force of law. Following the collapse of the Communist régimes, Francis Fukuyama, former deputy director of the U.S. State Department’s strategic cell, went as far as announcing “the end of History”, because according to him Man had reached the pinnacle of glory: one could never aspire to a more serene happiness than that of living in a representative democracy governed by liberalism; nothing could be more perfect than the undivided reign of the market.
Also, a phenomenal quantity of “experts”, “consultants”, “specialists”, journalists and private-sector managers got zealously involved in a whirlwind of mesmerizing proselytism that engulfed any attempted contestation in its path. Even so-called leftist political parties, unionists and academics across the board yielded to this grand movement of intellectual assimilation, which demanded ever less State and ever more market, more competiveness. And woe to anyone who dared contradict them! No one even deigned to listen, immediately rejecting with weighty authority any argument that might discredit established economic logic, ridiculing such poor fools with the supreme insults reserved for heretics: mindless idealists, blinkered Stalinists, unrealistic leftists, nostalgic or naive hippies, dangerous dreamers, frustrated Luddites, dinosaurs, etc.
That’s why I decided to make a film not on the globalization of the economy – many had already been made – but on the globalization of a system of thought. A film about mind control, brainwashing, ideological conformism; about the omnipresent irrefutability of a new monotheism, with its engraved commandments, burning bushes and golden calves.
As in my previous film, I decided to express this revolt in speech. Strong, straightforward, rigorous, informed speech, free to express itself at length to complete its ideas. There was no question of me restricting this speech or forcing it to conform to television conventions, using fast-paced editing to make it artifi cially dynamic, giving it a deceptive air of objectivity, or eluding complex topics. Nor did I want to use too much “visual lubricant” – archival or illustrative images that would have compromised the film’s cohesiveness and tainted the participants’ interventions. I inserted these only when absolutely necessary. I felt it was crucial that the incisive, captivating speech of these eminent thinkers fill the screen, and that the audience fall sway to the fascination of listening, as I had.
I deliberately set out to develop a filmic thesis that was overtly unique, in both form and content. Also, my film proceeds from several aesthetic biases. For example, it was shot in 16mm black-and-white film at a time when people advocate only digital video. Why? Simply because I find it beautiful. And because black-andwhite seems to impart a kind of timelessness to the film. And finally, I prefer to confine myself to the fi lm discipline that demands more conciseness and precision, since its cost requires shooting less and ensuring that the essential is said in 11 minutes (the duration of a reel).
On the other hand, the idea of using voiceover put me off. I decided to use intertitles instead. These allow me to structure the film, provide supplementary explanations not mentioned by the interviewees, take a stand personally and open the door to a second, more emotional level of meaning through music. Music that, while rich and audacious, doesn’t hinder the reading of the texts.
Finally, I decided not to identify my subjects during the film, as is usually done in television. People have reproached me for this, but I held firm because this relative anonymity focuses the viewer’s attention on the messages, not the messengers.
Since I got the initial idea, it has taken me almost twelve years to finish this film. True, I’m a rather scattered person, a polymath who likes to get involved in all kinds of causes. But I also like to take time to evolve with a project in order to deepen it. The fantastic thing is that now, twelve years later, the relevance of Encirclement is more burning than ever. The current world economic crisis is the direct result of the neoliberal reforms fuelled by free-market ideology and laissez-faire practices. But unfortunately, I still don’t believe the death knell has tolled. The present monetary and fiscal system inherited from Nixon is nowhere near being overhauled and as things stand I don’t imagine the plethora of privatizations and deregulation that have taken place worldwide will be reversed. On the contrary, we keep privatizing profitable enterprises, nationalizing businesses that generate losses and calling for more free trade.
I hope my film will at least be able to contribute, however humbly, to a broader questioning of the foundations of this deleterious ideology, and to making it recede.
Media [top]
Flyer and Poster
Click images for enlarged versions
Media Clippings
"A cogent attempt to bring related ideas to cinematic life, and an antidote to sound bite documentaries in general"
-Dennis Lim, The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune
"The film refrains from any propaganda, emotionality or didactic hankering after effects - Brouillette succeeds in remaining purely documentary. The film achieves its particular depth and integrity not least by giving equal time on the podium to some of the most eloquent representatives of Neo-Liberalism and Libertarianism (Martin Masse, Jean-Luc Migué, Filip Palda, Donald J. Boudreaux) - hence, the viewer witnesses an undistorted and fair discourse on a high academic level."
-Joscha Bach, Vanity Fair
"Listening to these specialists unravel with stunning clarity the roots of neo-liberalism, the mechanisms of its expansion and the ideas it conveys is a fascinating experience."
-Malik Berkati, Le Courrier (Geneva)
Links
http://www.filmsdupasseur.com/
Sales Info [top]
Pricing
Individuals: $40
Institutional copies [universities, libraries, etc]: $185
All prices include taxes, handling, and mailing.
For individual or institutional sales of Encirclement: Neoliberalism Ensnares Democracy, please contact André Bennett at sales@cinemalumiere.com.
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