I think the following videos are somewhat of a western cultural zeitgeist – all are considered ‘entertainment’ to a greater or lesser degree, but all reflect a world in serious and complex conflict. There is hope in that at least these ideas are coming out to play in the mainstream.

Firstly, an artfully made music video seemingly about the interplay of power, royalty, weapons, armies, sex, gender, industry, money, cars, people, dance music, science, research, beaurocracy and entertainment, etc:

Gesaffelstein | Pursuit from DIVISION on Vimeo.

The next one is political entertainment gold! Comedian, Russell Brand, gets one over the establishment on a highly circulated interview for British television:

Paxman: “I’m not having a go at you because you want a revolution. Many people want a revolution. I’m asking what it would be like!”

Brand: “Well I think what it won’t be like is a huge disparity between rich and poor where 300 Americans have the same amount of wealth as the 85 million poorest Americans, where there is an exploited and underserved underclass that are being continually ignored, where welfare is slashed while (David) Cameron and Osborne go to court to defend the right of bankers to continue receiving their bonuses!”

Hopefully the issues raised are discussed, rather than being drowned in the spectacle. Though as Brand admits – and it’s hard to disagree – “The people that govern us don’t want an active population who are politically engaged, they want passive consumers distracted by the spectacle of which I accept I am a part.” (Brand in an article for the Guardian).

… And (deeper we go!) here are “two fanatics and a liberal” – Julian Assange (the ‘cypherpunk’ & founder of Wikileaks who remains effectively trapped inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London after 500+ days inside to avoid extradition to Sweden for questionable sex offences) interviews “an intellectual superstar, the Slovenian Philosopher, Slavoj Zizek – a former anti-communist dissident now turned self-described communist.” Along with David Horowitz, “a former left-wing radical and Black Panther ally, now a firey right-wing Zionist.”_”…We shout, rant & talk calmly about Nazi’s and Palestinians, Black Panthers and Israelis, of Obama, Romney and Stalin.” Madness:

No one can deny these are crazy times! You couldn’t have scripted this stuff (maybe Black Mirror could), but of course there’s even a Hollywood movie about some of it – The 5th Estate, which Assange has described as “opportunistic and hostile….a geriatric snooze fest doomed for failure.”. Maybe it’s best pirated – the cypherpunks would want it that way… hah.