The Yes Men
The Yes Men is movie that trails two anti-corporate activist tricksters in their endeavors as they impersonate WTO spokespersons on television and business conferences globally. The movie traces the activities of the two tricksters, Andy and Mike from their earliest site GWBush.com to their imitation of the WTO website. The two impersonate the WTO representatives among other right-wing organization representatives. They craftily design the site and conduct their activities so professionally to the extent that some visitors to the fictitious sites perceive them as genuine sites. Furthermore, some visitors go to the extent of sending invitations that are meant for the real WTO. The two pranks find themselves attending and addressing important functions that are meant for the WTO representatives. The movie displays the expertise of the two pranks and the ease of deception among the society; how else can such impersonations be achieved.
The successes of the two in their activities arise from the fact that being anti-liberalization activists, they advance right-wing plans that are targeted to the poor masses. They portray the rich as devouring the poor; thus, they easily succeed in gaining the trust of the masses. the author aims and succeeds at getting their audiences to listen to the two anti-liberalization activists. The two get their audiences thinking about the adverse effects of globalization to the third world countries. Globalization is blamed for such adverse effects as poverty, diseases, pollution, and hunger. The two present wonderful performances for their audiences. They come up with valuable suggestions such as the recycling of human waste, which can be made into McDonald hamburgers that will be sold to the third world countries. In my opinion, the author intends to portray the developed nations trend of dumping that are harmful to the developing nations. The recycling suggestion effectively achieves this goal.
Andy and Mike are delighted to obtain an opposition to speak for the organization they oppose. They craftily get into thrift-store suits and set out to surprise their unsuspecting audiences with their comical satires on the international free trade. It is funny how the audiences buy into all the irony about the WTO; they tend to agree with any weird idea that the two impersonators develop. The two advocate for the employment of sweatshop workers; they consider this to be more human and cost effective compared to slavery. They argue that relocation of workers requires room and boarding facilities at the American standards. However, in the third world countries you can employ a larger number of employees at the same cost. Additionally, there is no need for the provision of medical cover or transporting them. The two, speak as representatives of the WTO that advocates for trade liberalization and international trade. Despite the critic on international trade and globalization, no one in the audiences become suspicious of the two or raises any objection.
In my opinion, the author of the movie intends to display susceptibility of the society to deceit and he successfully achieves the goal. The society easily builds trust on the affluent personalities or representatives of affluent organizations to the extent that it easily falls into deceit. The two pranks easily establish trust from their audiences since they represent affluent organizations. Once they establish the trust of their audience embark on various strategies to criticize the WTO; the audience easily buy into their ideas despite the fact that they criticize the same organization they are representing. They easily manipulate their audiences; once their attempts the audiences fail, they adopt new approaches. The audiences are so brainwashed to the extent that they do not suspect anything fishy with the two impersonators. The author portrays the susceptibility of the modern society to deceit; however, he does in a satirical manner that leaves the audience amused rather than sorry.
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