materialism at Brave New Films

'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and Rejecting Holiday Consumerism

2009-01-05T09:23:23Z

Over the years, my family has scaled back a lot of our Christmas. Realizing that the last thing we need is more stuff and the stress and cost of getting it, we've largely stopped buying presents, choosing instead to spend time with each other on little trips or on experiences that all of us can share.

But every year, I eagerly await the arrival of what has increasingly come to embody Christmas for me -- the broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I've watched this special every year that I can remember, and I continue to find things I love about it, from the kids' funky dances to the amazing score by the Vince Guaraldi Trio to the fact that the characters were voiced by actual kids.

But what has increasingly stood out to me over the years is A Charlie Brown Christmas’ powerful message to reject holiday materialism and return to the true meaning of Christmas.

FRICTION - ABOUT THE VERY RICH AND WEALTHY

2009-01-08T00:23:52Z

my song

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Grace Lee Boggs' direction for activists

2009-01-08T00:52:44Z

Interviewed the day after Martin Luther King Jr. day, Grace Lee Boggs, the 92-year-old activist from Detroit, describes these difficult times as "an opportunity to look at ourselves and reorder our priorities."

"There's a planetary emergency. There's a calamity of our war, of the occupation of Iraq. There's the tanking of the economy. And all these things are coming together at a time when King's call for a radical revolution of values against not only racism, but materialism and militarism, has a resonance that it hasn't had in previous years."

Boggs is trying to "encourage the capacities, the energy, the creativity, the imagination, that exists in people at the grassroots to redefine and rebuild our society. If we want to live in freedom from terror, we have to begin looking at ourselves, redefining who we are, redefining who this country is and reassessing what it is within our capacity to do."

Listen carefully. Perhaps listen several times to her call for local leaders to build and participate in transformative change within their spheres of influence.

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Tim McMullen's It Hurts the World

2008-10-27T09:31:05Z

A poem attacking hypocrisy in politics, child rearing, economics...I'll bet you've never heard so many interesting rhymes with the word "world."

It Hurts the World

There is one thing you can't deny
It hurts the world to live a lie
Your singular? It must be pluraled
You can't deny it hurts the world

You chauvinist with flag unfurled
You can't deny it hurts the world
In fighter's stance with fingers curled
You can't deny it hurts the world

You parent with a cruel word hurled
You can't deny it hurts the world
"Just say, 'No!" while your drink is swirled
You can't deny it hurts the world

Change I and me to us and we
Beyond your pond is one great sea
Now think of all that it might be
If we rid it of hypocrisy

You brag about how hard you try
Then blame it on the other guy
Discount those things your money can't buy
It hurts the world to live a lie

Your necks and wrists all diamond and pearled
You can't deny it hurts the world
That horde you have...how hard you've squirreled
You can't deny it hurts the world

Change I and me to us and we
Beyond your pond is one great sea
Now think of all that it might be
If we rid it of hypocrisy

written by Tim McMullen
©2000

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Eight Dollar Hot Dog

2009-01-02T06:17:14Z

Christian pastor and author Chris Seay struggles with eating an eight dollar hot dog when he gets an email from a colleague in Malawi.

This will make you think.

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Madeline Levine - Wealthy Parents and Ivy League Schools

2008-10-15T03:31:28Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Author and practicing psychologist Madeline Levine describes how wealthier parents "buy" their children's admissions into prestigious Ivy League schools, and discusses their psychological motivations for doing so.

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Madeline Levine talks about "The Price of Privilege."

Madeline Levine has been a psychologist for 25 years. Practicing in upper middle-class Marin County, her teenage patients are bright, socially skilled, and loved by their affluent parents. But behind a veneer of achievement and charm, many of these teens suffered severe emotional problems. Numerous studies show that privileged adolescents are experiencing epidemic rates of depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse - rates that are higher than those of any other socioeconomic group of young people in this country. While many privileged children project confidence and know how to make a good impression, alarming numbers lack the basic foundation of psychological development: an authentic sense of self.

In "The Price of Privilege," Levine offers professional counsel on raising children, especially in an environment of means. Levine will help identify parenting practices that are potentially harmful to healthy self-development, and that have contributed to epidemic levels of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the most unlikely place - the affluent family.

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Harrison Sheppard - Exporting America's "Consumeritis"

2009-01-02T06:15:09Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Author, pundit, and lawyer Harrison Sheppard argues that the exporting of American consumerism via pop culture has harmed the country's image abroad.

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Harrison Sheppard talks about "Too Much for our Own Good."

Author of Churchill: The Unexpected Hero, Paul Addison, Ph.D says “This is a secular sermon against materialism and in favor of the higher values of love, friendship, community and active citizenship. It breathes the humane and scientific spirit of the Enlightenment and in spite of its temperate language exhibits an underlying anger and frustration with the direction in which American society has been moving.”

Harrison Sheppard is a nationally known lawyer, author, and public speaker.

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Judith Levine - "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping"

2009-01-02T06:15:34Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Author Judith Levine examines her spending habits in relation to those of the average American consumer in an excerpt from her book, "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping."

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Judith Levine talks about "Not Buying It: My Year without Shopping."

Shocked by the commerce in everything from pet cloning to patriotism, frightened by the downward spiral of her finances and that of the trash-strewn earth, Judith Levine enlists her partner, Paul, in a radical experiment: to forgo all but the most necessary purchases for an entire year.

Without consumer goods and experiences, Judith and Paul pursue their careers, nurture relationships, and try to keep their sanity, their identities, and their sense of humor intact. Tracking their progress - and inevitable lapses - Levine contemplates need and desire, scarcity and security, consumerism and citizenship. She asks the Big Questions: Can the economy survive without shopping? Are Q-tips necessary? NOT BUYING IT is the confession of a woman any reader can identify with: someone who can't live without French roast coffee or SmartWool socks but who has had it up to here with over-consumption and its effects on the earth and everyone who dwells there. For the humor and intelligence of its insights, the refreshment of its skepticism, and the surprises of its conclusions, NOT BUYING IT is sure to be on anyone's list of necessities. Levine is also the author of "Harmful to Minors," "My Enemy, My Love" and "Do You Remember Me?" - Cody's

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Secret secrets of THE SECRET revealed

2008-10-16T21:30:11Z

Every time I talk to someone in the film world about the work we've done at Brave New Films with direct DVD sales and house parties, someone always brings up THE SECRET. It's sold like 2 million DVDs and has rabid fanatics all over the world visualizing sports cars and leather couches.

Well, THE SECRET, is, as Tara Burghart from the AP puts it, "embarrassingly materialistic," so you can imagine comparing the activist work we do to this scam (which has sold way more than we'll ever sell), gets old pretty fast.

I'll let Mark Day take it from here. Watch the vid.

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Defending Globalization

2009-01-02T06:18:14Z

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