The documentary movie I was attached
with to review is called “Koch Brothers Exposed” was produced in
2012 by American filmmaker Robert Greenwald to bring the alleged
political activities of billionaire Koch Brothers into light. The
documentary, from its inception, attempts to portray Charles and
David Koch's negative impact on different aspects of American life.
The billionaire Koch Brothers are described as “the poster boys of
1 percent” and their Koch Industries is one of the largest
privately owned firms in the US with the estimated annual revenue of
$100 billion. The critics argue that the extraordinary wealth and
overwhelming political influence of Koch Brothers harms the
environment, education, political campaign finance and labor rights.
In introductory part, the documentary
claims that Koch Brothers inherited wealth was build by their father
Fred Koch , a founder of John Birch Society, by working for Joseph
Stalin. In a campaign video, US Senator Bernie Sanders asserts that
the Koch Brothers fund think tank officials, media and politicians to
promote three ideas: the need to raise the age of retirement, the
notion that the social security system is going bankrupt, and the
idea that social security should be privatized. Meanwhile, members of
the general public compares and contrast their own lifestyle,
supported by the social security system, with those of Koch brothers.
Regarding to the Koch Brothers
involvement in educational aspect, the main focus is concentrated on
the re-segregation of schools namely, the idea of black people should
not be studying with the white ones, and having excessive control
over the recruitment, syllabus design, research and publishing with
the aim of exposing students exclusively to their ideology and point
of view at colleges and universities.
Later in the movie, the Koch Brothers'
alleged involvement in political campaign financing is underlied by
accusing them on “buying the democracy...getting Republicans
elected and buying their votes on public policy issues and
environmental issues.'' A few interviewed say that the Koch Brothers
use financial influence over politicians such as Representative Fred
Upon and Governor Scott Walker to kill envronmental regulation and
bust trade unions. Also, the Koch Brothers are critisized for
intending to disfranchise African-American, Latino, elderly, young
and disabled voters.
About the environmental part, the
residents of the district nearby the Koch Industries, complain about
environmental pollution and the Keystone Pipeline in particular is
mentioned to be a great cause of cancer in the community of that
neighbourhood.
In the end, a brief epilogue featuring
news footage from anti-Koch protests around the country calls for
unity in exposing the Koch brothers. Well, the film also mentions
about some statistics such as how much money was “donated” to
who, what, where and so on, yet I did not find them necessary to
write them here.
To share my humble opinion, I do not
know if the information of the documentary is absolutely reliable,
but if even it were, it would have been totally “unethical” to
accuse the Koch Brothers on the activities they have been committing.
I am not trying to defend them in any sense, (well, if they have a
bit of humanity, they shall not be acting in a way they do.),
however, if the system in which they are living/functioning/doing
business allows them to do so, then its not the them to blame, but
the system. And my advice for those who are trying to fight the Koch
Brothers, you'd better fight the system, because it's the system that
is capable of designing such “professionals”. How to fight the
system? Ask for my phone number on the comment and invite me for a
cup of coffee!!! ;)
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