The Secret of Oz

Had a chance to watch "The Secret of Oz: Solutions for a Broken Economy" last night.

Interesting.

It's a follow up film by Ben Still to an earlier work titled, "The Money Masters: How Banks Create the World's Money".

In 'The Secret of Oz', Still argues that the United States is headed for a deep depression unless lawmakers address the root of the problem: mounting interest payments on the national debt.

Still wonders if the solution to America's economic troubles can be found in the pages of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"?

It is well known in economics academia that "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" – written by Baum in 1900 – is loaded with powerful symbols of monetary reform which were the core of the Populist movement and the 1896 and 1900 presidential bids of Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

The yellow brick road (gold standard), the emerald city of Oz (greenback money), even Dorothy's silver slippers (changed to ruby slippers for the movie version) were symbols of Baum and Bryan's belief that adding silver coinage to gold would provide much needed money to a depression-strapped, 1890s America.

Still's film picks up on Baum’s symbolisms and spells them all out – The yellow brick road, the silver slippers, the Emerald City, the mindless Scarecrow, the heartless Tin Man, the cowardly Lion. Even the witches and flying monkeys have meanings.

Still attempts to present a way the United States can rise up from unworkable debt based math and return quickly to a prosperous future. For Still it requires "pulling back the curtain on America's financial history and viewing it as it is, not how the men behind the curtain box it and present it."

The film focuses on the belief that the people - not the big banks - should control the quantity of a nation's money. The bottom line: No More National Debt.

All money is created out of debt, but nations don't have to borrow money from banks. Sovereign nations can create their own money - debt free - just as Abraham Lincoln did.

The premise is routed in the actions taken by US President Abraham Lincoln.

The film is doing very well on the film festival circuit. It's been accepted by 8 film festivals and has won at 3. It won the Silver Sierra Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the Yosemite Film Festival, the Award of Merit at The Accolade Competition in La Jolla, California and the Silver Screen Award at the Nevada Film Festival.

It's worth taking a look.

The film is available on Amazon.com and is popular enough that it has found it's way on to other forms of exchange.

It you get the chance, check it out.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.