Inside Job is a brilliantly made documentary. It explains exactly what happened in the 2008 financial crisis that devastated the world. The film beautifully structures a tremendous amount of information, and it simplifies for our consumption the complex inter-related greed of the many different varieties of scum that shafted the entire world and made off with trillions. It is brilliantly written and directed, the pacing is near flawless, and Matt Damon makes an excellent narrator. It is a film that every American should see, and think deeply about.

Most of the evil creeps that perpetrated this rape of the world (Greenspan, Larry Summers, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, the coked-up pricks running Goldman Sachs, etc.) declined to be interviewed for this film, but amazingly a few of the more marginal participants did for some reason agree to be interviewed. Watching these folks answer the questions put to them is a revelation. I have always suspected that the rich and powerful don’t give a shit about anything but their own greed, but seeing their body language and the implicit arrogance of their answers makes obvious the shocking degree to which they are completely divorced from any compassion for their fellow man. It has to be seen to be believed.

The film also unleashes an unexpected and devastating  expose of how academics at elite universities are an integral part of the greed cycle (they are paid large sums of money to write papers that support whatever horrific mayhem the greedy wall-street leaders want to perpetuate, and they do not mention in these papers that they were paid to write them.) These arrogant, privileged denizens to the halls of power who masquerade as academic nerds really get the masks ripped off their faces, and it is clear that they are not at all happy about it. It is a very beautiful thing to watch.

The film is an incredible sociopolitical wake-up-call. The system (state capitalism enslaved to unaccountable corporate power) that we created and which we perpetuate with our votes, our money and our laziness is destroying everything. Inside Job brings to every citizen the ability to understand who screwed us, how they did it, and why. From there, it’s up to us. As Inside Job makes clear later in the film, Obama followed orders and put all these fuckers back in power, and despite all those flashy senate hearings we were shown with democrats “grilling” the financial leaders, none of them were ever really punished. Now the financial sector is chugging along just as it was before the crisis. Will we let this happen all over again, maybe on a scale ten times greater? Only time will tell. I hope not.

The thing I liked best about Inside Job is that it paints a picture of the actions, motivations and amorality of the rich and powerful that sharply contrasts with the commonly held view (especially among people who consider themselves “conservative”) that the rich and powerful deserve their wealth because “they are smart and worked hard to get it.” Watching Inside Job makes it clear that these rich and powerful people get all that money and power by fucking us in the ass every chance they get, that our government helps them do it, and until we as a people decide we want to live differently and are willing to endure the terrible struggle that will be necessary to change our system, things will only get worse.

If one thing comes out of this movie, I hope that America starts to reclaim a healthy distrust for the rich. Americans need to stop idolizing the obscenely wealthy and start seeing them for what they are. Rich people in this society do not become rich so they can use their wealth to create jobs for us. They don’t give a flying fuck about us or whether we live or die. Rich people use their wealth to get richer and richer and more and more protected and isolated. This simple fact must be grasped if we are to change things for the better. Maybe Inside Job will help get people thinking.

Every American should see Inside Job. It should be required viewing for all school children. It’s that good, and that important. See it now!