Tad Lumpkin is a hard-line Libertarian. He also is a Southern California film producer. If that sounds like a matter/anti-matter equation, we understand and, probably, so does he.
But Lumpkin says that his latest creation, a half-hour cartoon called “The American Dream,” leaps across ideological chasms and got a positive response from folks he screened it for in Hollywood, that roiling cauldron of leftyness.
“The American Dream,” in essence, is a horror story told in “South Park” style. It says the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States has locked the nation in a nigh-unbreakable cycle of loans, interest and debt, using an endless flow of currency that’s backed by absolutely nothing.
(Australians could conceivably improve their enjoyment of the video by mentally replacing every reference to the U.S. Fed with “Reserve Bank of Australia.” Though their histories are different, many of the fiscal concepts are similar.)
In an interview with Fox Business, Lumpkin said his goal was to make his cautionary tale/history lesson/economics lecture digestible, watchable… fun. One of the main characters, Pile, takes the role of the viewer — fully engulfed by the system, skeptical of any implication that he’s being jobbed. Slowly, though, he’s re-educated by Hartman, the video’s narrator and crusader.
As razor-sharp and well-animated as one finds “The American Dream,” its message is — depending on what side your bread is buttered — muted or enhanced by sober references to numerous conspiracy theories. Among them:
- Banking magnate Nathan Rothschild essentially took over the English economy by exploiting early news of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.
- A cabal of industry captains, led by J.P. Morgan, hatched the idea of the Federal Reserve in a super-secret meeting at a retreat in Georgia called Jekyll Island.
- President John F. Kennedy was assassinated because the banking overlords behind the Fed were displeased by JFK’s signing of an executive order that issued silver certificates backed by actual precious metal.
None of the assertions are new. All have been heartily supported (here, here and here) or skewered (here, here and here) on the Interwebs. If anything, they raise the level of discourse for “The American Dream.”
Yet, whether you’re a keen conspiracy theorist or a battle-weary cynic, there’s something in this 30 minute epic tale (at least, ‘epic’ by YouTube standards) for just about everyone.
(A tip o’ the hat to Philip Bateman of bravocharlie.tv for flagging the video .)
