Customer Reviews

The Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Yes Men are a small group of pranksters/anti-World Trade Organization activists bent on disrupting global free trade in some of the most unusual manners. Some of their past stunts included altering some GI Joe and Barbie dolls and switching their voices, and creating a website that was very similiar to then Governor George W. Bush around the time he decided to run for president. I loved Bush's response that there should be limits freedom. Of course the WTO wasn't none too pleased with The Yes Men. This book is a companion piece to the brilliant film I just saw. It highlights the effort that Andy and Mike put into infiltrating various global free trade forums. You would be amazed by the amount of time and work they actually invested because it took them months especially for the textile conference in Finland which was extremely funnier than heck. I had never laughed as hard as I did when Andy unleashed that phallus to an unsuspecting audience. What was even funnier was the idea for McDonald's to literally recycle the food waste into food for starving third world countries. When Andy and Mike presented that idea to a college class, the reaction was priceless. Michael Moore makes a cameo appearance in this film like he did in "The Corporation". As funny as that guy is, what he said was nothing new. I think his footage could have been left off or expanded more on the evils of free trade. Yes The Yes Men are immature the results of their pranks are hilarious but with a serious message. A definitely must see movie and read book.

Change the world, OK? Why not impersonate the leaders, infiltrate their organization, expose them for what they really are and then shut them down and all from within. If you're going to do it, do it with humor, that's what these guys did. This book is Great, changes a persons ideas of what a few people are really capable of doing in the world. These guys helped the world and had fun doing it. We need more freedom fighters of their caliber. I highly recommend reading this book and loan it to your friends and start thinking creatively. If you love this book and want more I recommend you check out The Yes Men the Movie and I also recommend the book Re/Search #11: Pranks by V. Vale available right here on Amazon, and I'd also highly recommend checking out a book called The Happy Mutant Handbook that is out of print but you can find copies on here and ebay sometimes or other book sites **ALSO EVERYONE** I recommend checking out and listening to www.airamericaradio.com to stay informed about what's going on and have a few laughs and animated political cartoonist www.markfiore.com OH AND HAPPY PRANKING.

These Yes Men are the rightful heirs of the Yippies! of the 1960's, people like Abbie Hoffman and pre-sellout Jerry Rubin (Steal This Book). In many ways, partially due to advances in technology, they exceed the wildest dreams and fantasies of the Yippies quest to expose the truth about those in power. While the Yippies ran a pig named Pigassus for President in 1968 and then had a naked woman serve his head on a silver platter at the Republican convention, these guys have no need for such attempted rebrandings from outside; they show those in power going along with the most heinous things imaginable (their argument that the Civil War was a failure to wait for the magic of the marketplace to realize that it was more cost effective to enslave people in their country of origin was priceless, as was the lack of reaction).

It is hard for most to imagine just how amoral those in power politically and economically truely are. Now the Yes Men can make up for our lack of imagination by explicitly and clearly showing us the truth with their pranks. That they can both entertain us and provide us with an invaluable and irreplicable lesson about the world around us at the same time is amazing.

If you are at all interested in politics, economics, social justice, or the environment this is must read and must view material. You should also look for their new movie The Yes Men Save The World out soon on HBO.

Forget The Matrix's Neo: The Yes Men are The One--or, rather, The Ones, ascended masters of media hoaxing, sociopolitical pranking, and Tactical Embarrassment. From [...], their deft evisceration of His Illegitimacy's official website, to their helpful re-branding of Dow Chemical's public image (on the anniversary of Dow's 1983 Bhopal screwup, which killed 5,000 people), to their Regime Change Playing Cards (trade you a Dick Cheney Ace of Spades for a GWB Four of Clubs!), the Yes Men have earned the ire of big, lumbering targets such as the World Trade Organization and George W. Bush. What a wonderful world, where a band of guerrilla media activists does the toothless newsmedia's job for them, exposing the Matrix of corporate power and government venality for all to see. Welcome to the Desert of the Surreal.

-- Mark Dery, author of The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink