The legacy of Ken Loach at the BBC is well demonstrated in ‘Sorry We Missed You’. ‘Up The Junction’ and ‘Cathy Come Home’ changed politics, bringing the gender issues of unwanted pregnancies and homelessness into every home in the UK. Can ‘Sorry We Missed You’ do it again for modern zero-hours contract slavery?
A family is ripped apart by cruel employment abuses, both in the private sector delivery business and also in the government’s carer business. A woman leaving the cinema commented that we should be grateful for our lives. And yet, I thought, we still want someone (else) to deliver packages on demand and someone (else) to remove the soiled clothes of the elderly. The gig economy is based on exploitation, easily sold to people who aspire to controlling their own destiny: perhaps suitable in the short term, there are longer term consequences that start with mental health issues and get worse from there.
And another movie I think worth seeing is Gaza. The plight of the Palestinians was well illustrated. Imagine your life boxed within the rubble of protracted siege. An open prison for millions for whom the perennial denial of opportunity is the weapon of war used against them.
Classic misdirection, the world is being flooded with cheap oil. History is full of desperate leaders doing vile things. Saddam Hussein covered a retreat by scorching the earth with burning oil wells. What might leaders do in Syria or elsewhere with a virus that can’t be contained in wars that can’t be won?
Michael Lewis wrote that ‘When choosing between sure things and gambles, people’s desires to avoid loss exceeded their desire to secure gain’. I think that’s how bureaucracy evolves.
Wage slavery. Floods of oil.
There are many things to fix.
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