Friday, March 26, 2010

Mike Daisey throttles American consumerism in The Last Cargo Cult | Atlanta | A&E | Theater Review:

Daisey proves to be more than just a funny comedian and a spellbinding storyteller: He's also an inquisitive thinker with a rich perspective on social structures. Daisey lays out how money can intrude on practically any kind of relationship or activity despite essentially being devoid of meaning or value (particularly since the gold standard no longer backs up dollars). Huge banks behaved irrationally by sinking incalculable fortunes into wispy financial instruments like derivatives, then turned around to offer the craven excuse, "How could we have known that a system without morals or ethics was unstable?"