Is satire more fun than sincerity? Maybe. Just watched The Yes Men last night — and am v. inspired to be someone other than myself. For a good cause, of course.
If you haven’t yet heard of The Yes Men: A few boys whip up a mock WTO site, then start getting invitations to speak from organizations that think their site is the real WTO site.
The boys say yes, of course, and go speak — arguing that abolition wasn’t necessary since the free market woulda solved that problem anyway, extolling the benefits of having a vote-selling system, advocating the embedding of electrodes into overseas workers’ shoulders for better monitoring.
Aside from one inquisitive college audience, all the other groups listen to The Yes Men seriously — and respond not with outrage, but with polite applause and enthusiastic handshakes.
I was feeling a lil down last night, and was thinking maybe I’m watching too many depressing documentaries (An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car, Black Gold, etc. etc.) — but this film cheered me up. So much so that I checked out The Yes Men FAQ online after the film and giggled over that too:
How do you feel about adding new falsehoods to the news environment?
The news is already full of hoaxes; the only reason ours stand out is that we don’t do them for profit.
BTW, gatt.org — the mock WTO site through which The Yes Men got invites to speak as WTO representatives — is still going strong. Top news item on the page: “WTO Announces Formalized Slavery Market For Africa”
Maybe I’ll become a Yes girl –
I loved that movie! I despise lying a lot but I think with The Yes Men, a moral purpose justifies it. There’s no way they could get the sort of access they do and get these messages out there without lying. They need more publicity (people should add their videos to their YouTube playlists! That helps!) And there do need to be more Yes Men and Yes Women, with more subversive and widespread tactics.
Like you, I looked for info on joining up after seeing the movie. I was disappointed at the lack of an active YesMen LJ group, and info aplenty on What To Do… (is there lots more info nowadays?) You should join up; I think you’d make a great Yes Woman!
Comment by trill42 — February 8, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
What’s sort of interesting — to me — is that they didn’t really lie. They got invites through gatt.org, accepted, then spouted the info that WTO spouts — albeit more blatantly. Their “lies” were only that of omission — i.e. not correcting the people who assumed they were part of the official WTO –
Maybe if I find a way to support myself without working, I can become a full-time Yes girl –
Comment by Siel — February 9, 2007 @ 1:02 am