WHY WAIT FOR CATASTROPHE? - Documentary Script

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" WHY WAIT FOR CATASTROPHE "

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A DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Written by
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Christopher Templeton
(A WGA Copyright Registered Script No: 1750889)
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THIS SCRIPT IS FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL USE
DO NOT COPY OR ELECTRONICALLY DISTRIBUTE THIS SCRIPT TO A 3RD PARTY

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16th December 2020

SIGNIFICANT VOID
www.significantvoid.co.uk
+ 44(0)7901 918042 (UK)
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Suggested Interviewees
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#1 PAUL KRUGMAN - NOBEL ECONOMIST
#2 JAMES STAVRIDIS - FORMER ALLIED COMMANDER OF NATO
#3 MEHDI HASSAN - UK JOURNALIST (BREXIT)

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#4 ZEPHYR TEACHOUT - AUTHOR OF 'CORRUPTION IN AMERICA'
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1 GRAPHIC TYPOGRAPHY 1
Black screen, two lines at a time.

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“ Man has much more to fear from
his fellow creatures.
Than from the convulsions of the
elements ”.
- Gibbon’s ‘Decline & Fall of the

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Roman Empire’.
FADE IN. FX OF
STREET
CACOPHANY.
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2 EXT - GV CROWDED STREET IN THE US - DAY 2
NARRATOR (V.O.)
People. We’re a terrible bunch
really. But I guess some of us are
all right.
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3 EXT - CLOSE SHOT STREET - DAY 3
The camera selects one marching individual in CLOSE SHOT. The

man is looking down at first, but then looks up, grinning
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insidiously.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
And yet, there is always a nagging
doubt in the back of the mind, a
sneaking suspicion that the man you
just passed in the street hides a
club to beat you with, a weapon to
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advance his will above yours.
A world where smiles can sometimes

hide low level evils.
4 MONTAGE - HISTORICAL ARCHIVE - AUTOCRATS PAST 4

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A parade of renowned historical autocrats. Images of

aggressive, gesticulating men (Franco, Mussolini et al)
NARRATOR (V.O.)
A world where enemies look and feel
the same with every generation.
1.
5 MONTAGE - HISTORICAL ARCHIVE - AUTOCRATS MORE RECENT 5
The flip side of the same coin and the wars that have been
linked to those autocrats: the Spanish Civil War (Franco,
1936); the invasion of Kuwait (Hussein, 1993) etc. The
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sequence explodes with an atomic bomb and ends with its
devastation.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Frankly, historically, human life
is one long contradiction – no one
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has found that protean moment for
change, nor distilled its wisdom
from the many ages of human
civilization.
If the answer to our challenges is

“war”, and those wars are always
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terrible - why do they get glowing
reviews in retrospect?
Who cares today about the

incinerations of Hiroshima or
Nagasaki? Or the heaps of dead on
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both sides of any conflict?
Arguably, we’ve come close to

solutions - yet, often swayed by
hypnotic mendacity, some of us
forget the point of it all.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
We live with our poverty of ideas,
ignoring the golden standards we
have sworn to uphold.
6 HISTORICAL ARCHIVE - NELSON MANDELA 6

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Images of Nelson Mandela as his voice break through the core

narrative.
NELSON MANDELA
“...I have dreamed of the idea of a
democratic and free society in
which all persons will live
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together in harmony...”.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Are we just cursed?
2.
7 EXT - GV CROWDED STREET IN THE US - DAY 7
Same street as Scene 2. Our grinning individual passes

through the frame. With the lens searching, we finally settle
upon a woman who stands in the crowd, unmoving.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
The perplexity has made us still
and mute in reply. To state the
case frankly: we can no longer
afford to get it wrong - a third
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time.
8 EXT - CLOSE SHOT STREET - DAY 8
CLOSE SHOT of the woman. She has an authentic smile and a

face you can trust.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
In an age of assured destruction,
whether by bombs or climate, we
have to execute our best ideas.
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To do nothing, is to wait for
catastrophe...
9 MAIN TITLE GRAPHIC 9

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Text writ large and set within the 1950 TIME cover art
frontispiece of Clarence K. Streit by Hamlin Baker.
MUSIC BUILD.
TRANSFORMATIVE.
“ WHY WAIT FOR CATASTROPHE? “

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10 HISTORICAL ARCHIVE 1939 - LONDON WW2 10
Images of London on the cusp of the outbreak of war, whole

families crowded around radio sets; Winston Churchill in
Parliament.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
ID
In the fateful winter of 1939, the

people of Britain clustered around
their wireless sets to hear the
rousing, defiant oratory of their
Prime Minister...
3.
11 STILL IMAGE - CLARENCE K. STREIT 11
Sepia still of Streit from the 1930s.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
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...and across the Atlantic, struck
with the fatuity of seeing one side
act so ruthlessly against another -
a young American journalist named
Clarence K. Streit, walked out of a
good job, to focus upon penning
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what was to become one of the most
challenging political manifestos of
his generation.
12 THE BOOK ‘UNION NOW’ ON A STALL (1939) 12

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A 1930s New York book store and then the frontispiece of the
original 1939 book in the front stall window.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The book he produced, ‘Union Now‘,
was a literary exercise in pure,
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improvised pragmatism. Heroic in
reach, with words suspended high
above the great arc of an impending
world war.
Evoking some of the most

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challenging political principles of
the 20th century, it’s
repercussions would soon become
seismic.
13 GRAPHIC TYPOGRAPHY 13
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The voice (actor) of Clarence Streit over text:
VOICE OF STREIT
“...for the condition of the whole
of the human species to change
immensely for the better, the
American President need only invite
the fourteen other leaders of
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democracy to join him in declaring

the undeniable: that the common
supreme unit of government is the
equal sovereignty of man ”.
4.
14 ARCHIVE - NEW YORK 1940’S 14
GVs of New York. Images of organization and pamphleteering.

People reading books.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
Like Paine’s ‘Common Sense’, a
close reading of the book excited
many American minds and indeed,
those who read it were inspired to
organize in groups around its
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principles.
Not simply conscripts to a cause -

an army of spontaneous volunteers.
People’s interest coalesced around

five, neatly expressed core
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principles. The newly minted
concepts of ‘International
Federalism’, with the ensuing
global union of governments, union
of citizenship and defense, union
of communications - all bound
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within the economic imperative of a
customs-free global economy.
Streit wrote ‘Union Now‘ in the

shadow of Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave
New World’ - only his work, was
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pure fact not fiction.
15 INTERVIEWEE #1 - PAUL KRUGMAN 15
Interview with the American Nobel Memorial Prize Economist on

the theme of economic idealism: a customs free global
economy, international federalism and its affect on economic
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geographies.
16 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - RISE OF NAZISM AND STALINISM 16
Montage of the nascent powers of Stalinism and Nazism in the

1930s.
ID
NARRATOR (V.O.)
And thus, the Federal Union
movement was born with the sole
intention that this great Global
Republic would become organized and
then spread peacefully around the
world as nations grew and ripened
with it.
(MORE)
5.
NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT'D)
Not without teeth - remember this
was 1939, it sought to act as a
bulwark against the alienating
experience of Nazism and Stalinism.
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Fine ideals ready to be tested.
Ideals that could only be obscured
by one thing - the fog of war.
17 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - OUTBREAK OF WWII 17

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Images of violence and war. Anti-aircraft flashes obscure the
viewers sight, bleaching the mind.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The fact of the war with its
ensuing violence, was to make
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explicit the text of ‘Union Now’,
paying Streit the compliment of
having premeditated a solution for
a crisis that was already emerging.
The politics of National

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Governments held no appeal for
Streit - and during the course of
the second world war, they had no
need of him either.
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18 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - THE CLOSE OF WW2 18
Images of the surrendering of Nazi Germany. The slowing down

of the war machine in Europe. The aftermath and destruction
account.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Yet Streit’s pre-war ideas had a
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potent facility for recurring in
the mind. Having captured the
moment in 1939 - resolute and
unwavering by nature, he wasn’t
about to let them go, now that the
war in Europe was nearing a close.
The ready made principles contained

ID
in ‘Union Now’ were quickly

rehabilitated and Streit’s gift for
unifying ideas and spirited
phrasing, promoted them well.
(MORE)
6.
Whilst the battlefields of Europe
were still warm after years of
pounding, his ‘Federal Union’
offices quickly became the busy
focal point for a diverse, non-
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partisan range of public figures,
all attracted to the idea that
America was in a special position
to shape a new international order.
All eager to be part of a process

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that would lead, no less, to the
‘United States of the World’.
19 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - THE EARLY ‘ATLANTICISTS’ 19
Original footage from the late 1940s of George Marshall,

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Harold Ickes, Owen Roberts, Foster Dulles and Grenville
Clark.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
George Marshall. Secretary of the
Interior, Harold Ickes. Supreme
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Court Justice, Owen Roberts. John
Foster Dulles. Grenville Clark,
Stimson’s personal counselor at the
War Department - all subscribed,
counting themselves as proud, card-
carrying members of the Federal
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Union.
And history started taking notes.
There is such a thing as political

literacy. This was the Union’s
first chapter, a movement that was
now strongly active, striving for
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an international federal union of
the world’s leading democracies.
It was at this time that Streit

gave voice to his most prescient
idea and his energies continued to
focus upon the single notion of a
‘global convention’. An event where
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all the nations in the world, most

experienced in governing themselves
on the basis of individual freedom,
would come together.
(MORE)
7.
And once together, they would
explore the ideas of freedom,
economic recovery and the nature of
long-lasting peace.
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The magnitude of the vision was
startling as it provided for a
constitution uniting all peoples
into an organic, global, federal
Union.
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20 INTERVIEWEE #1 - PAUL KRUGMAN 20
Interview with the American Nobel Memorial Prize Economist on

the theme of global economic unification as a response to
Transatlantic fears.
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PAUL KRUGMAN
(along the lines of):
Unfortunately, Europe was ill-
equipped to respond to economic
problems that it never anticipated
having to face. Deeply divided
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about the Soviet Bloc with the
nations on the frontline fearful
and seeking reassurance, while
others like France and Germany were
seeking possible accommodation with
Moscow. The fact is, Europe never
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expected to face those kinds of
challenges at this stage of
history.
In the 1950’s, they’re still

dealing with 19th century power
structures. Europe's post modern
tools of foreign policy were not
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designed to address geopolitical
challenges.
There is in fact a real question as

to whether individual countries are
institutionally or temperamentally
able to play those kind of
geopolitical games anymore.
ID
21 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - WASHINGTON (1950’S) 21
GVs of Washington in the period.
8.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
It was now 1950 - and the
establishment was not without its
nerves, as the ideals of the
‘Atlanticists’ slowly took root in
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Washington.
Streit’s inexhaustible reservoir of

ideas had to contain it’s own
defence, as the Federal Union
concept was at heart since 1939,
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designed as a way of protecting the
free world from totalitarian
regimes.
And yet, this fact didn’t stop its

detractors in Washington who now
pitched tent around the Union.
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22 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - PUBLIC AFFAIRS TV 22
Except taken from ‘Washington Now’ TV Series (1952).

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WASHINGTON NOW PRESENTER
“ World government is of course not
a new idea, the League of Nations
was a hopeful idea born of World
War I. The Atlantic Charter has
military as well as political
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significance but alliance factors
were obscured by war. The United
Nations has shown many defects.
Economic and ideological problems
stand in the way of human agreement
“.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
VO
Some spoke of Streit with a curled
lip. In their eyes, American
sovereignty would be threatened and
“bled white” by European
domination.
On the extremes, there was a

pointing and suggesting that this
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brand of populist internationalism,

was a feint, that the Federal Union
was in fact, a Marxist hive.
9.
Interview with Senator George W. Malone of Navada taken from

‘Washington Now’ TV Series (1952).
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SEN. GEORGE MALONE
(verbatim) “This is the final chute
that they’re driving the public of
the United States into. That is a
Federation of Nations, each with
one vote. The old Karl Marx
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socialist principle. We’ll have
just one vote, just like England,
just like France...”
NARRATOR (V.O.)
This couldn’t have been further
from the truth - the open hearted
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aim of the Union and all its
supporters was to defend, extend
and sustain individual liberty and
arguably, most important of all -
peace.
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24 INTERVIEWEE #2 JAMES STAVRIDIS 24
Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, discusses the

military union’s special design and the crucial role of
shared forces in keeping world peace.
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JAMES STAVRIDIS
(along the lines of)
For seven decades, NATO has
preserved peace and stability in
Europe, promoted democratic values,
and been a consistent and
significant force multiplier for
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the United States, both politically
and militarily...
25 GRAPHIC ROSTRUM OF HAMILTON’S ORIGINAL PAPERS (1788) 25
NARRATOR (V.O.)
In spirit, ‘Union Now’ could have
ID
been a lost a chapter from

Alexander Hamilton’s ‘Federalist
Papers’.
However, some political figures

refused to see it that way.
10.
End state interview with Senator George W. Malone of Navada

taken from ‘Washington Now’ TV Series (1952).
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SEN. GEORGE MALONE
(vehemently)
I am against it!
27 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - THE UNITED NATIONS (1950S) 27

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Early days. Exterior/Interiors of the UN building. Debates in
full flow.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
In spite of these discouragements
and reverses, Streit’s ideas
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retained a saintly penumbra and he
continued to initiate steps towards
a global convention - within a ten
year time frame.
Criticism can connect, yet despite

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his detractors, the irresistible
idea of ‘Atlanticism’ or a movement
for an international federation -
was already out there, thriving and
being debated.
nt
It could not be taken back.
Over the next decade, Streit and

his supporters explored every
opportunity for embracing the
principle of Atlantic unification,
in both word and action.
VO
Interview with Senator Estes Kefauver taken from “Washington

Now” TV Series (1952).
NARRATOR (V.O.)
In the public arena and in the
ID
Senate, the cause was represented

by one man, Senator Estes Kefauver.
WASHINGTON NOW PRESENTER

“ One calm course is proposed by
Senator Estes Kefauver of
Tennessee, Senator. What is your
Atlantic Union resolution? “.
11.
ESTES KEFAUVER
“ The Atlantic Union resolution
provides simply that the President
calls a conference of the people of
the nations that have signed the
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north Atlantic treaty to see how
far they can go in the creation of
a federal union.
Democracies always unite for the

purposes of winning of a war, so
gn
this is an effort to have us unite
for the purposes of preventing a
war. (...) That is what we seek to
prevent. War. We want to preserve
our liberty, our peace and our
freedom.
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The Atlantic Union resolution is
the best way of doing that “.
29 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - WASHINGTON (1952-1960) 29

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Political activities on the Hill. GVs.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
And it was over this period, that
the battle for the soul of the
principle was most vigorously
nt
fought out, in Congress and in that
branch most concerned with foreign
affairs, the US Senate.
30 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - POLITICAL FIGURES (1952-1960) 30
Archive footage of named political figures: Hubert Humphrey,

VO
John Sparkman, James Murray, William Fulbright, Clifford
Case, Richard Nixon.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Senator Kefauver’s unremitting
efforts convinced other Senators,
including Hubert Humphrey, John
Sparkman, James Murray, William
ID
Fulbright and Clifford Case.

Embraced even by a young emerging
politician known as Richard Nixon.
12.
31 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - INTERIORS OF BOTH HOUSES (1960) 31
Interior aspect of Congress and the Senate of the period

including Committee meetings.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
Year after year, despite cross
party support, resolutions calling
for an Atlantic citizens convention
were drafted and redrafted, only to
die in committee. More often
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scuttled by an intransigent block
of Southern Democrats and
Republican conservatives who
continued to see the Transatlantic
convention as a threat to American
independence of action.
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However, with his own, self imposed
deadline about to expire, a final
vote, on the 50th drafting was
taken on the (TBC).
With more Senators participating

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than in any previous roll-call of
that session of Congress, the
resolution was finally passed, 51
to 44.
The same resolution in the House of

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Representatives passed quickly -
and with an overwhelming majority.
Finally signed by President John F.
Kennedy.
The process of selecting

delegations could begin. Streit’s
utopian dream had become a reality.
VO
The declarative text of the final

Senate Resolution - would have made
John Adams sing.
32 GRAPHIC TYPOGRAPHY - SENATE RESOLUTION 32

ID
A rolling text of the final Senate resolution.
13.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
ONE: That the legislature of the
other democratic governments of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
shall be invited to name delegates
Si
to meet in a Convention with
delegates from the US and from such
other democracies, wherever
situated, as the Convention may
invite...
...to achieve more effective and
gn
democratic unity in advancing their
common economic and political
affairs, their joint defence with
the aim of world peace and
individual freedom.
ifi
33 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - W.C.CLAYTON & CHRISTIAN HERTER 33
Newsreel footage 1951-1962 of W.L.Clayton and Christian

Herter.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
ca
The heady task of planning for a
global Convention got off to a
promising start. In its first
meeting, two of the federal Union’s
most eminent ‘Atlanticists’,
W.L.Clayton, President Truman’s
nt
Under Secretary of State, the man
who inspired the Marshall Plan, and
President Eisenhower’s Secretary of
State, Christian A. Herter, were
elected as co-Chairmen.
Clearly. Two heads are better than

one.
VO
34 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - THE CAPITALS OF EUROPE (1950S) 34
A montage of all the capitals of Europe of the period

including their airports.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
ID
Their primary tasks were Herculian:

to visit the capitals of all the
NATO members to explain and to then
convince parliamentary leaders of
the advantages of the new approach
along with the need to advance
eminent, experienced citizens as
representatives.
(MORE)
14.
Initial, informal reactions were

hopeful.
Democracy is a pattern seeking

Si
animal and the Convention project
itself was patterned on the
Philadelphia Convention of 1787 -
to Americans the most cherished of
events which had seen the penning
of its own Constitution.
gn
The Atlantic Exploratory Committee
had postulated a clear, new creed
that was free from the ambiguities
and imprecisions which history and
usage had corrupted.
ifi
35 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - THE UNITED NATIONS (1950S) 35
Interior aspects to underline the functional and

organizational points being made.
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NARRATOR (V.O.)
The delegates from each country,
though officially appointed by
their governments, would not be
‘instructed’. Nor would they act
nor vote as a bloc or unit, but
nt
would be free to speak and vote as
‘individuals’, each according to
their own conscience.
The Convention would act upon a

majority vote and representation
would be in rough but not precise
relation to population.
VO
In function, the newly coined

‘Atlantic Citizens Convention’
would act like a Rosetta Stone, for
the mental and moral combats of the
modern free world.
The gem within the centre of its

ID
thinking was simple: that for a

small transference of national
sovereignty, each country would own
and continue to own a greater
measure of prosperity and security.
(MORE)
15.
‘International Federalism’, now a
new force of political modernity,
was coming into full view for the
world.
Si
36 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - PARIS (1962) 36
GVs of Paris in the period.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
gn
On the eve of the convention, in
Paris on January 8th 1962, as a
feint to all the remaining
detractors in the Senate, Clarence
Streit said:
ifi
37 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - CLARENCE K. STREIT 37
Footage or rostrum newspaper archive imagery of Clarence K.

Streit. Dramatized voice over.
VOICE OF CLARENCE STREIT

ca
“ The only question you need to ask
about the Union of the Free is
this: is it or is it not wise to
support the calling of this
Atlantic Federal Convention?
nt
Shall we or shall we not begin at
long last to explore the one way
out of our difficulties that we
have not yet even explored, except
in our imaginations, though history
tells us to put our faith in it?
Shall we try to get this

VO
exploration started or put it off?
Take a chance or defer it? “
38 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - PARIS (1962) 38
Paris Conference halls and people masses.

ID
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Was the Conference a success? You
be the judge.
The event produced resolutions, all

of which were unanimously passed.
(MORE)
16.
Delegates expressed enthusiasm and
keenness to return home, to guide
their governments and people
towards the implementation of those
resolutions.
Si
At the same time they announced
their combined will to meet again,
at a later date, to reconvene and
assess progress and above all to
make further, forward-looking
gn
resolutions.
However, the follow up Convention -

never happened.
39 GRAPHIC MASTHEAD OF THE NEW YORK TIMES (1962) 39

ifi
Digital rendering of New York Times articles of the period
covering the event.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The New York Times applauded the
ca
event, and saw it for what it was,
a much better action than waiting
for “some great catastrophe to
produce the necessary compression
of national sovereignties”, i.e.
War - and citing the event as a
nt
“courageous act of faith”.
The world after all had had enough

of the bang-bangs.
40 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - CHRISTIAN A. HERTER (1962) 40

VO
Footage of Christian Herter being congratulated or in
discussion with delegates or Senators.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Chairman Herter’s opening speech at
the Convention had made headlines
across the United States and
Europe, and he was congratulated
ID
for his canny, high-wire balancing

act between “inertia and utopia”.
The final Declarations were well

received back in the States - they
had gone out of their way to avoid
the weasel word of
“sovereignty”.
(MORE)
17.
And certainly, Clarence Streit was
relieved that no one had referred
to the event as “Quixotic”,
although several political
detractors in the States had called
Si
it “Sancho-Panzotic”.
Most called it “history in the

making”.
Homeric to the end and forever the

gn
gentleman, Chairman Herter made no
valedictory statements or speeches
and parted the event without formal
commentary.
He simply let the Declarations

speak for themselves.
ifi
And they did.
41 CURRENT AFFAIRS NEWS ARCHIVES - AUTOCRATIC SPEECHES 41

ca
CRASH CUT MONTAGE. A parade of contemporary political
autocrats in full vocal swing with verbal stings at the end
of each statement.
This is an exhibition of national populism and vitriol as we

experience it today with fanatic crowds and supporters for
nt
each speaker. US President Donald Trump, Turkey’s PM Recep
Erdogan, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Brazil’s PM Jair Bolsonaro,
Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi.
DONALD TRUMP
(verbatim). “ Ya, I’m going to go
after YOU...believe me she wouldn’t
be my first choice! “
VO
RECEP ERDOGAN
(verbatim). “ They are assassins!
Robber, robber, grave robber! They
lie, they do monkey business! “
VIKTOR ORBÁN
(verbatim). “ Our answer is clear,
ID
we want to preserve Europe...for

Europeans! “
18.
SILVIO BERLUSCONI
“ I know a Producer in Italy who’s
making a film about Nazi
concentration camps, I suggest that
Schulz playing the role of
Si
Commander would be perfect! “
JAIR BOLSONARO
(verbatim). “ Beat up Chico Lopez!
Hey. I support torture, you know
that! “
gn
42 CURRENT AFFAIRS NEWS ARCHIVES 42
Montage of news current affairs. The victory of Trump’s 2016

US election, BREXIT in the UK
ifi
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Of course, the aim of the
initiators of the Convention, was
to have a much longer life. That
its work would continue for many
months and years after the 1962
ca
Convention had closed session.
Only with that extra time could it

hope to achieve its purpose by
probing deeper into the difficult
problems the world faced.
nt
It needed another chance to embed
its ethos.
43 INTERVIEWEE #3 - MEHDI HASSAN 43
Interview with the leading UK Journalist Mehdi Hassan on the

VO
theme of Trump’s US victory and the UK’s potential withdrawal
from the European Union (BREXIT). The roots of the winning
movements being stoked by autocrats on both sides who
employed racial grievances to optimize the affect.

ID
Montage of news current affairs in the US. The Mueller

investigations and early Impeachment hearings.
19.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Streit above all conceived the
federal union to defend the world
from totalitarianism and to
transfer outlier authoritarian
Si
governments into democratic ones.
From the beginning, the
organization was about individual
liberty and peace.
And on that score the conference,

gn
judging by today’s standards - had
failed.
The machinations of today’s

autocrats are part of the point.
How to read an autocrat has become
the current fascination. George
ifi
Steiner calls it the “ rhetorical,
confused and penetrating attention
of autocracy “.
Add this to the fact that you can’t

debate with a Twitter feed.
ca
45 GRAPHIC RENDERING OF TRUMP TWEETS 45
Montage of screen grabs of the US President’s Tweets:

nt
TWEET ONE
" My plan will lower taxes for our
country, not raise them. Phony New
York Times says I will raise taxes
— just another lie ”.
TWEET TWO
“ Lightweight Rand Paul should
VO
focus on getting elected in
Kentucky - a great State which is
embarrassed by him ”.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
It is fundamentally impossible to
find a significant statement in any
autocratic speech. At least, not
ID
one that will advance the world in

the direction it needs to take.
46 CURRENT AFFAIRS NEWS ARCHIVES - JAIR BOSONARO 46
CRASH CUT of Jair Bolsonaro speech.
20.
JAIR BOLSONARO
Don’t talk to me about military
dictatorship, only 272 people have
disappeared!
Si
NARRATOR (V.O.)
And more disturbing is the
cheapness of the shots where
language is of no concern.
The homogenization of people that

gn
the ‘Atlanticists’ fought for, is
under threat again.
However, lest we forget, Clarence

Streit faced a similar challenge in
1939, when he wrote ‘Union Now’.
ifi
From the standpoint of history and
political thought, his solution
constituted a major departure from
any system that was on offer at the
time.
ca
Can Streit’s ideas ever be
restored?
47 CURRENT AFFAIRS NEWS ARCHIVES - NATO, EU,G-8 (2019) 47

nt
Aspects of these great assemblies today.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
A good question, because in another
important sense, Streit’s 1962
Convention - succeeded.
Today’s federalist movements owe

VO
everything to Streit and the
‘Atlanticists’. Their lineage can
be found today in the organization
of the European Union, NATO, the
OECD and the G-8. None of whom
would have existed without that
deeply human impulse.
ID
Each of these bodies now have to

ask themselves a difficult
question:
Why have we stopped exploring?
21.
48 INTERVIEWEE #4 - ZEPHYR TEACHOUT 48
The author of the best-selling book: ‘Corruption in America’

reviews the theme of US political corruption as a poisonous
threat that the founders were obsessed with preventing.
Si
ZEPHYR TEACHOUT
(along the lines of)
There is some question about the
United States. At least some
portion of American elite opinion
gn
has shifted from post-Cold War
complacency, from the conviction
that the world was naturally moving
toward greater harmony, to despair
and resignation and the belief that
the United States and the world's
democracies are powerless to meet
ifi
the challenge of the rising great
powers.
Fukuyama and others counsel

accommodation to Russian ambitions,
on the grounds that there is now no
ca
choice. It is the post-American
world. Having failed to imagine
that the return of great power
autocracies was possible, they now
argue there is nothing to be done
and the wise policy is to
nt
accommodate to this new global
reality.
Yet again, however, their

imagination fails them. They do not
see what accommodation of the great
power autocracies may look like.
VO
49 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - PRESIDENT KENNEDY SPEECH (1962) 49
Excerpt from President Kennedy’s Declaration of Independence

speech in Philadelphia in 1962.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
In 1939, the United States faced
ID
these fears and still took on board

the original federal enterprise -
with the hope of a perfect union by
responding altruistically to the
needs of poorer, threatened
nations; by lowering trade barriers
and resolving problems of commerce
and commodities.
(MORE)
22.
There was a real sense that full
equality could be achieved and that
it was a worthy exercise.
Has that all gone away...?

Si
NARRATOR (V.O.)
...President J.F. Kennedy wouldn’t
think so.
STUDIO PRESENTER
gn
“ President Kennedy takes the
occasion to call for a long range
American partnership with the rest
of a united Europe including
Germany. Warning that this won’t be
easily built, he added “:
ifi
J.F.KENNEDY
(Verbatim)
“ The United States looks upon this
vast new enterprise with hope and
admiration. We do not regard a
strong and united Europe as a
ca
rival, but a partner. To aid its
progress has been the basic object
of our foreign policy for 17 years
(...) we see in such a Europe a
partner with whom we can deal on a
basis of full equality in all the
nt
great and burdensome tasks of
building and defending a community
of free nations.
It would be premature at this time

to do more than indicate the high
regard with which we view the
formation of this partnership. The
VO
first order of business is for our
European friends to go forward in
forming the more perfect union
which will someday make this
partnership possible. “
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Kennedy’s words echo the now 200
ID
year old edicts of James Madison.

In his pamphlets, written in 1788,
Madison articulated the need to
form alliances with “ ...people who
are most similar “.
(MORE)
23.
Titled ‘ The Utility of the Union
as a safeguard against Domestic
Faction and Insurrection ‘, it
stressed that a representative
republic is far more robust, far
Si
more effective against the twin
constraints of partisanship and
factionalism. He said:
VOICE OF MADISON
“ The great and aggregate business
gn
being referred to the national, the
local and to the State legislatures
(would make) more difficult for
unworthy candidates to practice the
vicious arts by which elections are
too often carried. “
ifi
NARRATOR (V.O.)
In today’s terms, Madison was
saying that some constitutional
mechanisms should remain implicit
and don’t need to be affirmed
publicly...
ca
50 CURRENT AFFAIRS NEWS ARCHIVES - AUTOCRATIC SPEECHES 50
CRASH CUT MONTAGE. Our parade of modern autocrats reprieved.

nt
NARRATOR (V.O.)
...and that there is something
suspect about those who get too
strenuous on the point!
The lapse in time has not left us

without our dreams - it’s been just
half century since the great 1962
VO
Convention in Paris. Streit failed
to influence events after that
time, despite his good hearted
efforts.
But today in 2020, we are

ironically having to face the same
question he faced in 1939.
ID
Except taken from ‘Washington Now’ TV Series (1952)
24.
PRESENTER
“ In the final analysis, the
decision of our approach to world
government is up to you. Your
representatives, your federal
Si
government will depend on their
decisions on the sum total of your
opinion.
It’s in your minds that we shall

determine how far and how fast we
gn
shall go - or how slow and how fast
we should retreat. “
NARRATOR (V.O.)
ifi
History has edges and ironies that
are inscrutable.
And although many parts of the

mirror are cracked or blurred, at
the end of the day, we all have to
ca
choose a human system. And in that
system, criticism has its place.
But the primary ambitions of

‘Union Now‘, should continue to
play a role in our thinking. Our
nt
current entangled political legacy
has left us all as simply lost
seekers of truth in the wilderness.
Compared to an act of creation, the

virtues of the ‘Atlanticists‘ and
the aspirations of international
federalism, come second - but their
VO
ideals have never mattered more.
Without it, creation itself might

cease to exist.
As Oscar Wilde said: “ A map of the

world that does not show Utopia on
it - is not worth glancing at “.
ID
53 END TITLES 53
Graphic end titles roll to the reprieve the 1950 TIME cover
art frontispiece of Clarence K.
25.
Streit by Hamlin Baker along with an audio segment taken from
Carroll Quigley’s 1974 interview with Rudy Maxa of the
Washington Post, with the following verbatim text:
CARROLL QUIGLEY
Si
“ ...they were largely, partly
financed, for instance, by the, uh,
by Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust, and
the, how Milner got into this was
that he was the chief Rhodes
trustee. ”
gn
RUDY MAXA
“Uh, huh”
CARROLL QUIGLEY
“From 1905, when he came back from
Africa, until his death in 1925.”
ifi
RUDY MAXA
“All right.”
CARROLL QUIGLEY
So, this was an Atlantic Bloc.
ca
This, you know Streit, Clarence
Streit. S-T-R-E-I-T - ‘Union Now.’
Union now with Great Britain. All
right? He represents what this
group wanted. Clarence S-T-R-E-I-T.
nt
If he’s still alive, he probably
lives in Washington. I had his
daughter in my class. And, oh,
as a visitor, but not as a student
of mine.
And, he was built up by these

people as the only solution. This
VO
was in my book: His name and when
it happened and...”
RUDY MAXA
“ By the Round Table people? ”
CARROLL QUIGLEY
“ By the Round Table people. And,
ID
his book ‘Union Now’, which came

out in 1938, was called,
anonymously, in The Round Table
magazine by Lionel Curtis: ‘The
Only Way’. It was headed.
(MORE)
26.
CARROLL QUIGLEY (CONT'D)
It was then reviewed, anonymously,
in The Christian Science Monitor by
Lord Lothian as a solution to all
our problems...”
Si
END.
gn
ifi
ca
nt
VO
ID
27.

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" WHY WAIT FOR CATASTROPHE "

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16th December 2020

#2 JAMES STAVRIDIS - FORMER ALLIED COMMANDER OF NATO

#3 MEHDI HASSAN - UK JOURNALIST (BREXIT)

Black screen, two lines at a time.

- Gibbon’s ‘Decline & Fall of the

The camera selects one marching individual in CLOSE SHOT. The

A world where smiles can sometimes

4 MONTAGE - HISTORICAL ARCHIVE - AUTOCRATS PAST 4

A parade of renowned historical autocrats. Images of

If the answer to our challenges is

Who cares today about the

Arguably, we’ve come close to

6 HISTORICAL ARCHIVE - NELSON MANDELA 6

Images of Nelson Mandela as his voice break through the core

Same street as Scene 2. Our grinning individual passes

8 EXT - CLOSE SHOT STREET - DAY 8

CLOSE SHOT of the woman. She has an authentic smile and a

9 MAIN TITLE GRAPHIC 9

“ WHY WAIT FOR CATASTROPHE? “

10 HISTORICAL ARCHIVE 1939 - LONDON WW2 10

Images of London on the cusp of the outbreak of war, whole

In the fateful winter of 1939, the

Sepia still of Streit from the 1930s.

12 THE BOOK ‘UNION NOW’ ON A STALL (1939) 12

Evoking some of the most

democracy to join him in declaring

GVs of New York. Images of organization and pamphleteering.

Not simply conscripts to a cause -

People’s interest coalesced around

Streit wrote ‘Union Now‘ in the

15 INTERVIEWEE #1 - PAUL KRUGMAN 15

Interview with the American Nobel Memorial Prize Economist on

16 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - RISE OF NAZISM AND STALINISM 16

Montage of the nascent powers of Stalinism and Nazism in the

17 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - OUTBREAK OF WWII 17

The politics of National

Images of the surrendering of Nazi Germany. The slowing down

The ready made principles contained

in ‘Union Now’ were quickly

All eager to be part of a process

19 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - THE EARLY ‘ATLANTICISTS’ 19

Original footage from the late 1940s of George Marshall,

And history started taking notes.

There is such a thing as political

It was at this time that Streit

all the nations in the world, most

Interview with the American Nobel Memorial Prize Economist on

In the 1950’s, they’re still

There is in fact a real question as

21 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - WASHINGTON (1950’S) 21

GVs of Washington in the period.

Streit’s inexhaustible reservoir of

And yet, this fact didn’t stop its

Except taken from ‘Washington Now’ TV Series (1952).

On the extremes, there was a

brand of populist internationalism,

Interview with Senator George W. Malone of Navada taken from

Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, discusses the

25 GRAPHIC ROSTRUM OF HAMILTON’S ORIGINAL PAPERS (1788) 25

been a lost a chapter from

However, some political figures

End state interview with Senator George W. Malone of Navada

27 HISTORICAL ARCHIVES - THE UNITED NATIONS (1950S) 27