MOVIE REVIEW OF ...
What a Way to Go
Life at the End of Empire

(Documentary)   Released: 2007

This What a Way to Go review written by Mark Jeantheau, Grinning Planet.

This is a different sort of "Peak Oil movie." Rather than just focusing on the approaching decline in oil production and its likely effects on our petroleum-powered modern lifestyles, What a Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire, presents that issue merely as a symptom of a larger problem---modern society as empire. For those who thought the 20th century finally saw an end to empires, think again. The emperors only changed clothes, got new job titles, and swapped in "predatory economics" for slavery and overt domination. It's a Matrix-like nightmare that seems normal to us, even with all its chaos.

The film surveys the litany of collateral damage due to our entrapment in the empire:

• environmental degradation, including the approaching disaster known as global climate change;
• species facing a new mass extinction event---this one caused not by killer asteroids but by the march of "human progress";
• dissociation from the details of how life's basic commodities (such as energy, water, and food) are provided to us;
• our general ignorance of the technological wonders that we depend on;
• the dominant use of violence (war) as a means of overcoming obstacles and expanding influence;
• our Ponzi-inspired, never-ending-growth economic model, which logically must fail at some point.

These are all symptoms of a planet and people in serious trouble. We've been encouraged to live beyond our economic, natural, and spiritual means, and we've done quite a job of it. The film lays out the bleak truth for us in a surprisingly watchable package, nicely incorporating narration, interview clips, and strangely cool archival material. Elegant and almost poetic in tone, What a Way To Go gently takes us by the hand as it explains to us the harsh reality of how things really are, where they're likely to go, and how difficult the challenge is.

In the end, What a Way To Go leaves us with a choice: As the reach of The Powers That Be exceeds their grasp and things really begin to come unglued, will we citizens of empire shrug our shoulders and party on as the marble columns fall around us, or will we shake off the illusion and being to re-take control of what was ours to begin with?

See clips or get purchase info for this movie at the film's website Check out this movie at Amazon.com Related options.... Environmental Movies Peak Oil Movies Videos & Animations about Peak Oil Videos & Animations for All Topics More Peak Oil Resources

Or search Amazon.com for more... DVD Video Books Popular Music All Products

Liner notes for What a Way to Go - Life at the End of Empire:
Categories: Peak Oil, Empire, Plutocracy, Collapse, Environmental Degradation, Animal Abuse. Produced by Sally Erickson. Written, Directed, and Edited by Tim Bennett. Featuring interviews with Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen, Jerry Mander, Chellis Glendinning, Richard Heinberg, Thomas Berry, William Catton, Ran Prieur and Richard Manning.

FREE AUDIO CLIPS

Grinning Planet also has audio . . .

RELATED AUDIO KunstlerCast Energy "Wishful Thinking" in the US — 30 May 2013— Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas, describes media reports that the US will soon be energy-independent as wishful thinking. He says flow rates, not reserve amounts, are the issue, and flow rates are trending down. Biofuels will not be able to replace fossil fuels. The American way of life will, in the end, be negotiable—declining energy availability and affordability will necessitate it. But a lower-energy world may prove to be just the kick we need to unplug our chaos-numbed minds from the world of distractions. Go to page  |  Download/Listen   35:45 C-Realm Podcast Dmitry Orlov:  Survivors' Toolkit for the Five Stages of Collapse — 05 Jun 2013— KMO welcomes Dmitry Orlov back to the C-Realm to discuss the themes in his new book, The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors' Toolkit. Orlov presents case studies of people who responded adaptively to collapses of various sorts, including (1) how organized crime syndicates became a necessary way of doing business in post-Soviet Russia; and (2) the Roma (Gypsies) who have mastered the art of hiding in plain site, staying flexible, and maintaining a clear boundary between themselves and the larger societies in which they operate. Go to page  |  Download/Listen   1:00:00 The Lifeboat Hour The Accelerating Demise of Our Industrial Society — 26 May 2013 — Mike Ruppert reviews the many signs that the demise of our industrial society is accelerating, as infrastructure collapses, as the rule of law increasingly does not apply, and as The Powers That Be have fewer and fewer options for keeping the game going. Although he empathizes with people who are still pursuing change through normal channels—for instance, protesting fracking at a county council meeting—he thinks such activities just end up being part of the theatre of the ruling class, a way for TPTB's minions to let caring folks have their tantrums but still do what the corp-gov empire demands in its unwavering effort to maximize profit and power at the expense of all else. Go to page  |  Download/Listen   53:50 MORE Get more audio clips on peak oil and environmental issues (and many more topics) in Grinning Planet's biweekly downloadable audio news feed.

ADVERTISEMENT