Documentary as a Tool for Indoctrination
... and an unexpected conclusion
I love to learn. So I have always enjoyed documentaries. They are such an entertaining way to explore new topics or cultivate a deeper understanding of something familiar. But, as with many things, I’ve had a bit of an awakening over the last decade or so that has changed the way I watch virtually every form of news, entertainment or infotainment.
With regard to documentaries and many other modes of entertainment, I started to realize that 5-10 minutes of resonance was enough to get me on board for the remainder of the message. I would stop thinking critically and simply “learn” from a documentary. Then I started to notice twinges of discomfort (cognitive dissonance) when some ideas were introduced. Initially, I indiscriminately wrote these moments off as the common discomfort of learning new things.
But then one day, about an hour into Kiss the Ground, a documentary that was ostensibly about regenerative agriculture, Gavin Newsom appeared as an environmental hero. It made me stop and pay attention.
What was his contribution? Narrator Woody Harrelson explains:
“San Francisco residents are actually fined for not putting compost into the green bin.”
Gavin Newsom elaborates:
“We incentivize people to keep things out of the black bins. You have nothing in the black (trash) bin, we don’t charge you. You have a ton of stuff in the black bin, we charge you a lot. So your goal is to get it in the green and blue bins - the composting and recycling bins. You wanna move the mouse, you move the cheese.”
Incentivize or penalize? I’m honestly not sure I would have stopped to consider what I actually thought about this solution 10 years ago. I think stopping to consider matters.
Recognizing Cognitive Dissonance
Kiss the Ground is mostly a beautiful film about soil and regenerative farming, but like many documentaries, it weaves in a combination of ideas that merge powerful agendas with hopeful solutions. This generally happens about two thirds of the way in, by which time most viewers have aligned with the narrative that’s been presented. (I suspect this merging is how many of these documentaries ultimately get backing and support. I’ve since made a habit of checking for partnerships.)
We should be paying attention to how these seeds of hope are fertilized.
We should also note how the problem is framed, because this often sets us up to accept the proposed solution.
In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Russell Brand refers to an “aesthetic of care” and “language of inclusivity” that cloak many of the darker agendas that are presented to us as “solutions”. Documentaries can powerfully weild these tools to shape your thinking. It’s important to be aware of the mind seeds that are planted while our hearts are opened and activated.
While many people have become wise the the antics of influencers and Hollywood, plenty of us are still accustomed to mindlessly watching documentaries as a way of simply bearing witness to a “true” story or an earnest pursuit of truth.
Emotional Appeals
Inside the Fentanyl Crisis/10 Dollar Death Trip, which explores the fentanyl crisis in Canada, is another powerful and moving documentary that does a beautiful job of humanizing a community of opioid addicts. It gives us glimpses of the hearts and souls of people gripped by addiction and invites us to view them through a lens of compassion. I really loved this aspect of the documentary.
However, it takes a significant leap in concluding that harm reduction, which focuses on overdose and risk reduction, is the most effective and compassionate response.
About halfway through the one-hour program we meet volunteers from the New Leaf Outreach Supervised Consumption Site, a make-shift tent, where users can safely inject drugs.
“Rather than giving users clean equipment to take away, the volunteers here invite them into the tent to use their drugs under supervision…. It’s an odd situation. Although fentanyl is illegal and the tent is unsanctioned, the medical supplies are directly provided by the health department. In times of crisis, sometimes laws become secondary.”
I recently wrote about my concerns regarding this shift to harm reduction.
Harm Reduction, Damage Control or Worse?
This documentary actually takes things a step further and suggests that the most compassionate approach to opioid addiction may actually be providing users with medical-grade heroin.
But is this really compassion?
At about the 40 minute mark, a user called Ronnie demonstrates how he shoots-up a $4+ fentanyl shot. Within minutes his high is over and he prepares to go shoplift because he “feels like shit already.” When asked what fentanyl has done to his life, he offers this tragic response:
My life has been absolutely dragged through the mud. I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost family members and I have nothing. I live on the f*cking street. I freeze almost every night and I steal to eat and support myself. I hate my life. I f*ucking hate it. I wake up on the morning wishing I didn’t. That’s opioid drug us for ya.
I feel terrible. I wouldn’t wish living like this for the person I hate most in the world. It’s not living… it’s dying…. and you’re willingly doing it. Why because you’re too scared of being dopesick or getting off the drugs? … When you’ve done something for so long it’s all you know, man… All I know is jail and crime and f*ckin drugs. It’s all i know. I’m lost.
…I’ve got a five year old son… doesn’t know who his dad is.
How much will access to safer supply of drugs help him? It seems like a question worth exploring further.
According to this news.com.au article, “Funded by the government, the move (away from street drugs) costs $27,000 ($A29,800) a year to supply heroin for one patient.”
And the shift from street drugs is itself considered a parameter of success:
“When people start with us, they’re using illicit drugs every day and by six months of care with us that goes down to a handful of days a month,” Dr Macdonald, Providence Crosstown Clinic said.
It turns out that the Providence Crosstown Clinic, featured in 10 Dollar Death Trip, was also part of the SALOME clinical trial that tested this medical-grade heroin against other another existing treatment:
A total of 202 participants in Vancouver were randomized in a six-month double blind study to receive either injectable hydromorphone or injectable diacetylmorphine (DAM). The medication was administered at PHC’s Crosstown Clinic under the supervision of an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, social workers and counselors.
The Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness (SALOME) was a clinical trial that tested alternative treatments for people with chronic heroin addiction who were not benefitting sufficiently from current known treatments. About 10% of the heroin-dependent population does not respond sufficiently from available treatments such as oral methadone.
SALOME compared two similar medications – diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient of heroin, and HDM. This study also tested if those effectively treated with these two injectable medications could be successfully switched and retained to the oral formulations of the medications.
A look at the funding and the relationship between the involved organizations raised some additional questions…
The SALOME study received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and private donors through the fundraising efforts of the InnerChange Foundation and St. Paul’s Foundation. Providence Health Care funded clinical care for participants during the study. The cost of the study was $7.4 million.
… but as I was clicking links and connecting dots, I noticed my own crusade and aborted the mission. You probably don’t have to follow these clues all the way to the end to know how funding dangled by powerful entities, often cloaked in non-profit status, impacts the outcome of whatever work is done. If you’ve ever get your important project funded, you know.
But I’m going to make an abrupt detour. Apologies… You’re on my path with me now…
Truth Seeker, Heal Thyself
Based on what I’m learning from some of my favorite teachers - Barry Brownstein, Tessa Lena and my husband, Ross - I can’t come full circle without exploring my own motivation for writing this piece. I can’t deny the presence of a “Gotcha addict” that lurks beneath a genuine desire to understand. I suspect it’s the result of being blindsided and lied to by people and organizations I once trusted. Either way, it feels important to acknowledge all the parts that drive us.
My exploration of ALL of this is forcing me to examine my own story and my own motivation. What I’m noticing, and gradually reevaluating for myself, is that getting too caught up in any pursuit, no matter how noble at the start, can be a path to tunnel vision. And ultimately more delusion. All crusades are ultimately destructive.
Even the most beautiful seeds will bear toxic fruit if fertilized in enough bullshit.
So, once again, I’m diverted back to myself and the healing I need to do.
Do I think that the documentary genre is being used as an indoctrination tool? Yup.
Is that the most important discovery I’ve made? Not by a longshot.
Am I done digging? Unlikely. Recovery is a slow and steady process. But I’m trying to be a bit more mindful when I do.