Oblivious. If I could describe Americans in one word after watching Inside Job, it would be oblivious. And that’s putting it kindly. Granted, the general American public should not be inherently blamed for the recession inducing quagmire that befell Wall Street and Main Street in 2007/2008. Who should? The pat-on-the-back cohorts of the American Government and the greedy, scandalous head haunchos of the big Banks and Investment companies. The United States is evidently a Wall Street Government.
As the movie coherently digresses, the recession was an industry induced superbug scam targeting oblivious Americans that pyramided into one giant, bastardized Ponzi Scheme. A scheme that nobody important *cough* the Government *cough* seemed to catch nor stop. A lot of politically accountable people played “stupid;” a lot of them pretended to be oblivious. Hence, you can understand why I walked out of Inside Job fuming with anger and animosity for our continental neighbors.
Americans should thank God that their motto is “In God We Trust” rather than “In People” or “In Liberty” we trust. Because if God was to be blamed for the financial firestorm that ravaged the United States – where the US may have been the fire starter trigger man influencing the pervasive Global Recessionary Meltdown – then we could have heard terms like Financial Armageddon or Market Apocalypse being thrown around.
Because God CAN’T be blamed, we can blame the multitude of foreseeable-yet-ignored build ups leading to the implosion and explosion of global financial markets. What impressed me the most about the narrative structure of Inside Job was how it timelines the pre-crash causes; the breaking point and subsequent Goliath fall of world markets; and the country/global meltdown that ensued. Chronicling each stage with insider commentary, the documentary explores such things as the subprime Housing Bubble bust; investment gambling on CDOs and other trash-binned securities; governmental deregulation of everything Wall Street; the kanoodling of Governmental and Financial big wigs for massive profit taking at the expense of the middle and lower classes; the breach of trust and failure of accountability by everyone in a power position – including Economic professors and laureates of Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Stanford … The list of blasphemers is endless.
For the record, the Inside Job is not a Michael Moore-esque sentimental tug’n’pull propaganda trip. What it is is a movie that every American should see. For free. A movie to be mandated into the American education system for kids, students and future esteemed political and financial leaders to learn from. Because if Americans don’t learn from what happened, God has every right to ignore their pity prayers. And to watch their country crash and burn.