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Short History Of Water

Drawing on as diverse sources as Greek philosophy and 19th century economics, this tape makes a highly synthetic argument which proposes to replace money with water. Liberalism suggests hope for a unified world - an ideal, it is shown, which cannot use money as its medium, as money produces hierarchy. The ideal of a unified world can only be a non-hierarchical one, that is, can only occur when there is no restriction on the infinite movement of persons and things and their infinite connection.
Water, having opposite tendencies to those of money, as it has a very high use value, but a comparatively small exchange value, is proposed as the arbitrary medium of movement and connection, even though this would throw it into conflict with the hierarchicizing tendencies of money. These discussions take place in a classroom, where a liberal educational system and student response represent their own parallel conflicts. A SHORT HISTORY OF WATER is composed entirely of stills, drawn both from the classroom and a wide variety of other sources.