western guilt and apathy

it seems as though we find ourselves in an era of feel bad politics. what spurs our actions seems more out of guilt than wanting to actually do good in the world.
how long does the message have to stay constant in order for the impact to be felt? or does it just become another image in the cacaphony of images that are hurled before us? i don't watch television for the expressed purpose of not losing my touched.
this age of want and plenty, duplicitous agendas, mind strangling consumerism, the media's incessant barrage of anxiety-making headlines. it's all a bit stiffling, so i try to keep my head low and avoid the radar.
it seems though my natural response to all that's going on around me is a sense of shame that my so-called people are the main perveyors of destruction on the planet. is that illicited response supposed to goad me towards some positive action or shall i remain comatose like the rest of humanity?
what brings on all this topic of discussion is this movie "powaqqatsi", part of the Reggio apocolyptic trilogy. i don't know if showing the problem goads people into a state of feeling helpless or makes people want to actually do something. his movie is a montage of depressing images of developing countries (hate using the word third world, that's like saying "that's so ghetto"). it seems sorta smug to have documentry film-makers roll in with an expressed agenda of making us all feel like shit cause we're benefitting from the sweat of these exploited people. maybe if they left the camera rolling and tried complete objectivity without the internal dialog of accusor, i'd probably mesh better with it all.
at least movies like "matrix" or "brazil" give you a sense of hope against the system. maybe it's not enough to show the problem, there has to be a solution too. now there's the rub, maybe people walking to work on the freeway, although R.E.M. did that once before in a video.
another thing while i'm on the topic of film makers trying to manipulate my emotions, you can bloody well keep anything Phillip Glass does from here to eternity. does that man do anything that isn't repetitive to the nth degree? that guy certainly doesn't have many colors in his paintbox

maybe Marx had it right, it's just power structures are inherently bad and it was down to a mere set of socio-economic conflicts with the west that made it suspect. living in a capitalist society certainly doesn't make me feel that my comrad/brother has my best interest at heart either. oh well, i hope that something better comes along...