Veterans for Peace presents THE AMERICAN RULING CLASS @ Schlafly Tap Room

Tuesday, June 10th at the Schlafly Tap Room
Veterans for Peace http://www.veteransforpeace.org presents a free viewing of
The American Ruling Class
http://www.theamericanrulingclass.org/home/
The American Ruling Class, the worlds first
dramatic-documentary-musical, explores our countrys most taboo topic:
class, power and privilege in our nominally democratic republic. This
feature-length satire stars Lewis Lapham, the renowned essayist and
author, and a heavy-weight ensemble cast that includes former cabinet
secretaries, corporate mandarins, media magnates, and at least one
journalist working as a waitress. The film follows Lapham and two
recent Yale graduates as they make the rounds of Pentagon briefings,
the World Economic Forum, philanthropic foundations, law firms,
corporations banks, and New York society dinners as they attempt to
answer the question, Who rules America?

The
narrative portion of the film, interwoven throughout, tells the story
of two representative graduates, one rich and one poor as they seek
direction in their lives. Does America have a ruling class? If so, of
what is it made, and how does it co-exist with our democracy? How does
one join it: should one even want to? The real life luminaries become
characters in a story about power and its responsibilities, and by the
films end, the young men must decide: do they wish to rule the worldor
save it?

Appearing in the film are a range of leaders from
across the political spectrum, among them: Robert B. Altman, James A.
Baker III, Bill Bradley, Harold Brown, Hodding Carter III, William T.
Coleman, Jr., Walter Cronkite, Barbara Ehrenreich, Martin Garbus,
Vartan Gregorian, Mike Medavoy, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Samuel Peabody,
Peter G. Peterson, Pete Seeger, Lawrence H. Summers, Arthur O.
Sulzberger, Jr., William Howard Taft IV and Kurt Vonnegut.

As we
watch these two real-life graduates wend their way through what is only
a slight fictionalizing of their actual lives and choices, as we meet
former Secretaries of State and Defense, directors of the Trilateral
Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, the publisher of The
New York Times, and a host of others, we must ask (along with Mr.
Lapham): "To what end, the genius of the Wall Street banks and the
force of the Pentagon's colossal weapons? Where does America discover
the wisdom to play with its wonderful toys?" The possible answers move
beyond the hollow category of party affiliation and into the heart of
American Oligarchy itself.
Check out this preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDgFiW2xtf0
http://www.schlafly.com
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