Much has been said about Brad Lichtenstein’s As Goes Janesville, and it’s usually about how the film depicts Gov. Walker.
There’s much more to the film, though, and particularly interesting to me is how Janesville tries to entice a startup to locate in that city by offering millions in public incentives. The startup, Shine, promises a new method to process a critical isotope for use in medicine. (The isotope is vital and of longstanding use; Shine’s method is new.)
Embedded above is a clip from the film that a YouTube user has uploaded, and I’ve coded the embed to start part way through the film, starting at a scene I find compelling.
As the clip begins, members of the business community and advocates of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation try to persuade Sen. Tim Cullen to support millions in tax credits for Shine.
He’s skeptical, and replies after seeing a convoluted chart detailing how the WEDC will supposedly oversee the tax incentives and other public monies. Looking back at the WEDC, it’s all a bad and sad joke, more even than Lichtenstein probably knew when he filmed the scene.
I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat, so I’ve no partisan water to carry for Sen. Tim Cullen.
As it’s filmed, though, he’s the only one in the room who exhibits the reasoning that one would expect of a community leader.
It’s the kind of reasoning ordinary people have, but that’s washed away in a flood of jargon – empty, mostly – about synergies, innovations, leveraging, etc.
There’s a dare behind many of these terms, in this context: the speaker tries to awe others into believing that what he’s saying is profound, or prepares to insult others for ignorance if they question what’s being said: Oh my, it’s all so difficult and sophisticated and complicated, I’m not sure I could even explain it in a way you’d understand.
Too funny, really, as a contention like that is a lazy man’s effort to forestall examination and criticism of his (quite possibly) flimsy scheme.
Janesville’s had desperate times, and she’ll not recover quickly. She won’t truly recover, though – nor will we – if proposals are hushed and rushed as too many have been.