I first heard of Raoul Martinez’s work on the podcast Little Atoms. On it, he talked through the ideas in his book Creating Freedom. I highly recommend reading it. The book is accompanied by a documentary film.
We do not choose to exist, or the environment we grow up in. Our starting point in life is one of passive reliance on forces over which we have no control. THE LOTTERY OF BIRTH shows that from birth onwards our minds are a battleground of competing forces: familial, educational, cultural, and professional. The outcome of this battle not only determines who we become, but the society that we create.
The book was informed by over a decade of research. It exposes the mechanisms of control that pervade our lives and the myths on which they depend. Exploring the lottery of our birth, the coercive influence of concentrated wealth, and the consent-manufacturing realities of undemocratic power, he shows that our faith in free media, free markets, free elections and free will is dangerously misplaced and makes a case for creating freedom on our own terms.
The documentary was nominated for Best Documentary at London’s Raindance Film Festival and went on to win the Artivist Spirit 2012 Award at Hollywood’s Artivist Festival.
Watch at the link: http://xmovies8.fm/watch/yd6rrVd7-creating-freedom-the-lottery-of-birth.html
abitofinteresting 