Capitalism – Sydney Film Study Group

15 April 2012: The Power of the Poor with Hernando de Soto

Presented with the support of FilmStudyGroup.org.

At our next session of the Sydney Film Study Group, we will present the acclaimed documentary The Power of the Poor, featuring the influential Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto.

Date: Sunday, 15 April 2012

When: 4.30pm (doors open). Session: 5.00pm—7.00pm (Note different day and times)

Where: 19 Whiting Street, Artarmon, Sydney

RSVP is required to David Prichard by email or SMS 0411 527 612.

The evening will follow the Film Study Group format, with a moderated discussion after the documentary screening.

About the Documentary

The Power of the Poor is a story animated by ideas. How could a small group of economists and researchers help defeat home-grown terrorists in Peru?

How could they pressure the government to make legal reforms that would lift millions out of poverty? And how could they avoid being the target of bombings and assassination attempts? It takes both courage and ideas that work.

The Power of the Poor is a compelling look at the surprising and vital role of inclusive lawand titled property in establishing peace and prosperity. It is also the story of real people with real struggles—all of whom share a commitment to entrepreneurship.

Filmed on location in HD and hosted by renowned Peruvian economist and author Hernando de Soto, this insightful program tells how corruption, bureaucracy and a lack of simple legal rules have locked two-thirds of the world’s population out of the global economy. Forced to operate outside the rule of law, they have created their own parallel, but limited, commercial systems. “It’s time to let them in,” says de Soto.

De Soto and his team have proven that, even hobbled by great obstacles, the world’s hard-working poor entrepreneurs have created far more wealth than anyone had ever imagined possible—even with the absence of the legal frameworks people in the rich north take for granted. Prosperity is possible, if only we simplify the rules of the game. That means giving the poor titled property and the legal business tools we in the West enjoy. Such will enable them to harness the power of their considerable assets, as these stories illustrate.

Peruvian history proves de Soto right. Facing the growing violence of the Sendero Luminoso, the “Shining Path,” de Soto and his team were able to pass numerous legal reforms that helped lead to the defeat of the Shining Path and set the stage for Peru’s economic resurgence. To unlock The Power of the Poor is to change the world. If we fail, the world’s ‘humble people’ will turn against capitalism as they have turned against other failed economic systems. Such could make for a very difficult and violent age. But with policies of legal inclusion, there is hope.

Events are open to members and their guests, including guests that the President may sign in at the door. Guests are welcome! The membership fee for calendar 2012 is a nominal $10 to cover the entire calendar year. Members are not required to attend any minimum number of events. Members and their guests may bring their own (strictly non-alcoholic) drinks and noise-free eats. Non-members are welcome to attend as a guest of a member for the first of such attendances. Members will take responsibility for their guests and all participants must treat the venue and other members with courtesy.

15 February 2012: Commanding Heights – The Battles of Ideas

Presented with special thanks to InVision Productions of London & William Cran and with the support of FilmStudyGroup.org.

We are pleased to announce that the next session of the Sydney Film Study Group will feature Episode 1 (first half) of the acclaimed documentary, Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, entitled The Battle of Ideas.

Date: Wednesday, 15 February 2012

When: 6.30pm (doors open). Session: 7.00pm—9.30pm

Where: 19 Whiting Street, Artarmon, Sydney

RSVP is required to David Prichard by email or SMS 0411 527 612.

The evening will follow the Film Study Group format, with a moderated discussion after the documentary screening.

Important Note: We will be splitting Episode 1 of Commanding Heights into two parts, each approximately one hour in length. The first half will be screened at our session on 15 February and the second is expected to be screened at the following session.

About the Documentary

A global economy, energised by technological change and unprecedented flows of people and money, collapses in the wake of a terrorist attack … The year is 1914.

Worldwide war results, exhausting the resources of the great powers and convincing many that the economic system itself is to blame. From the ashes of the catastrophe, an intellectual and political struggle ignites between the powers of government and the forces of the marketplace, each determined to reinvent the world’s economic order.

Two individuals emerge whose ideas, shaped by very different experiences, will inform this debate and carry it forward.

One is a brilliant, unconventional Englishman named John Maynard Keynes.

The other is an outspoken émigré from ravaged Austria, Friedrich von Hayek.

But a worldwide depression holds the capitalist nations in its grip. In opposition to both Keynes and Hayek stand not only Hitler’s Third Reich but Stalin’s Soviet Union, schooled in the communist ideologies of Marx and Lenin and bent on obliterating the capitalist system altogether.

For more than half a century the battle of ideas will rage. From the totalitarian socialist systems to the fascist states, from the independent nations of the developing world to the mixed economies of Europe, and the regulated capitalism of the United States, government planning will gradually take over the commanding heights.

But in the 1970s, with Keynesian theory at its height and communism fully entrenched, economic stagnation sets in on all sides. When a British grocer’s daughter and a former Hollywood actor become heads of state, they join forces around the ideas of Hayek, and new political and economic policies begin to transform the world.

11 January 2012: Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged

Presented with the support of FilmStudyGroup.org and with special thanks to Fawaz Al-Matrouk.

We are pleased to announce that the next session of the Sydney Film Study Group will feature the excellent and timely documentary, Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged.

Date: 11 January 2012

When: 6.30pm (doors open). Session: 7.00pm—9.30pm

Where: 19 Whiting Street, Artarmon, Sydney

RSVP is required to David Prichard by email or SMS 0411 527 612.

The evening will follow the Film Study Group format, with a moderated discussion after the documentary screening.

Events are open to members and their guests, including guests that the President may sign in at the door. The membership fee for calendar 2012 is a nominal $10 to cover the entire calendar year. Members are not required to attend any minimum number of events. Members and their guests may bring their own (strictly non-alcoholic) drinks and noise-free eats. Non-members are welcome to attend as a guest of a member for the first of such attendances. Members will take responsibility for their guests and all participants must treat the venue and other members with courtesy.

About the Documentary

Written, Produced, Directed by Chris Mortensen – a television producer and documentary filmmaker whose many programs have appeared worldwide. In the U.S. his documentary subjects have ranged from Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, Hermann Goering and John Paul Jones to American Gangsters, the HIV crisis and the Iraq War. From Professional Wrestling to Halle Berry to the Suez Canal, his programs have appeared on Discovery, A&E, History Channel, ESPN, Fox Sports, BET, TV One, et al.

Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged is a feature length documentary film that examines the resurging interest in Ayn Rand’s epic and controversial 1957 novel and the validity of its dire prediction for America.

Set in what novelist and philosopher Rand called ‘the day after tomorrow,’ Atlas depicts an America in crisis, brought to her knees by a corrupt establishment of government regulators and businessmen with political pull – the ‘looters’ and the ‘moochers’ – who prey on individual achievement.

Less a conventional work of fiction than a philosophical manifesto in the form of a romantic novel, over the course of a thousand-plus pages, Atlas tackles no less an essential argument than the one debated by philosophers and theologians since time immemorial: altruism vs. self-interest. Am I my brother’s keeper – or not? For Ayn Rand, the answer is an emphatic no. To Rand and the disciples of her Objectivist philosophy, self-sacrifice is as heinous an act as murder … murder of the soul.

Upon publication, Atlas Shrugged was widely scorned by critics for its ‘preposterous’ plot and one-dimensional characters. Intellectuals and academics from across the ideological spectrum roundly dismissed the new and original philosophy called ‘Objectivism’ that Rand so compellingly illustrated in the novel.

Despite this pummeling, Atlas became a best seller and has remained in print ever selling a healthy 75,000 or so copies each year. Then with the new century, sales began to increase dramatically. In 2007, its fiftieth anniversary year, Atlas sold a record 180,000 copies. Since then Atlas Shrugged – published over a half century ago – has sold over a million copies.

Why? Because – as evidenced by pointed and frequent references to Rand and Atlas Shrugged in the media – an increasing number of Americans – right or wrong – see their society devolving into a nightmare scenario like the one Rand projected over a half century ago.

Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged looks into Rand’s background for the ideas and philosophy that inspired and shaped her novel and seeks to determine whether America is indeed headed for the disastrous outcome she predicted.