Film Review: ‘The Shadow State’: A Thought-Provoking Exposé on the Aims of ESG

Ian Kane
1/20/2023
Updated:
1/20/2023

2022 | Not Rated | 1h 22m | Documentary

Whether it be the clamor of sports, shopping hysteria, binge-watching movies and TV shows, the latest political shenanigans, or any number of other distractions, we may have missed seeing a sinister movement consisting of corporations, governments, and private institutions that has been quietly brewing in the background.

This relatively recent alliance of powerful forces is known as ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), which purports to champion such issues as climate change, gun control, inequality, and racism. If this all sounds similar to the wide array of divisive and destructive issues (that is, the anti-white critical race theory agenda, child grooming, constant hissing about fossil fuels, and so on) that’s because ESG cloaks itself behind similar far-left rhetoric.

In the fascinating Epoch Original production titled “The Shadow State,” we get an inside look at how these nefarious forces have been coalescing, what exactly their aims are, and most importantly, insights on how we can ultimately defeat them.

The documentary, hosted by Kevin Stocklin, features informative interviews with top experts in their respective fields. It also presents a profusion of complex information on the subject matter, in easy-to-understand ways.

A clip from “The Shadow State” showing the component parts of ESG. (Epoch Original)
A clip from “The Shadow State” showing the component parts of ESG. (Epoch Original)

Michael Rectenwald, author and former NYU professor, describes the rapid growth of ESG as “a massive campaign that has already metastasized to almost all of the corporate world.” The ESG agenda’s power players include a cabal of the largest banks, pension funds, tech companies, insurance companies, investment management firms, and globalist institutions such as the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The WEF is headed by its founder and chairman Klaus Schwab, a shadowy character so ominous that he could give Emperor Palpatine from “Star Wars” a serious run for his money.

The proponents of ESG are rather direct about their power-projection goals. As Schwab puts it: “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed.” Larry Fink, the CEO of the global investment juggernaut BlackRock, is even less subtle: “Our behaviors are going to have to change. And this is one thing we’re asking companies. … You have to force behaviors, … and at BlackRock, we’re forcing behaviors.”

In reality, it seems that the WEF and BlackRock don’t have to resort to much “forcing” at all, at least when it comes to the top companies in the world; these are lining up in droves to get their cut of the big fat ESG pie. What’s the allure? As host Stocklin reveals, the ESG campaign has already acquired a whopping $55 trillion in assets, a figure that is projected to rise to $100 trillion by 2025. That’s just too much of a goldmine to pass up for all of the concerned parties.

A protest in favor of gun control as shown in “The Shadow State.” (Epoch Original)
A protest in favor of gun control as shown in “The Shadow State.” (Epoch Original)
So, why doesn’t the public at large know too much about all of this? Because the ESG movement also conveniently controls all of the dinosaur legacy media companies. It’s similar to how all of these bought and paid-for media outlets were sponsored by the gigantic pharmaceutical corporations during the COVID-19 era. There was never any mainstream criticism of the vaccines that have been rolled out.

A Power Trip

Internationally, people have been handing their money and sovereignty over to financial institutions for ages, and the amassing of tremendous power and influence over the years by a very few has come at a terrible cost. Since these titans of finance now control the global financial markets, they also control everyone’s access to capital and can dictate their terms to both industries and individuals in a top-down manner.

A perfect example of this power projection occurred when the Canadian convoy protest formed at the beginning of 2022 to rise up against their country’s draconian vaccine mandates. Canada responded to this “threat” by enlisting the help of banks to seize and freeze the bank accounts of the truckers—a move that signaled the death knell of the Freedom Convoy movement.

Host Kevin Stocklin in “The Shadow State.” (Epoch Original)
Host Kevin Stocklin in “The Shadow State.” (Epoch Original)

As Stocklin asks in the film, “Have corporations become an enforcement arm of government, … doing what the government can’t legally do?”

Just as with other leftist agendas, ESG cloaks itself behind a veil of morality, posing as a champion of social change and an agent of change for the downtrodden. By now, I think we’ve seen how all of these kinds of policies have turned out—resulting in division, death, destruction, and despair.

Canadian police and protesters in “The Shadow State.” (Epoch Original)
Canadian police and protesters in “The Shadow State.” (Epoch Original)

“The Shadow State” is a well-produced documentary that is must-see watching for anyone interested in learning what the globalist powers are up to. It presents its points clearly, without getting bogged down by too many statistics and graphs. It’s not a doom-and-gloom type of production, but rather, it presents potential solutions for dealing with ESG.

View “The Shadow State” at bit.ly/TheShadowState
‘The Shadow State’ Documentary Director: Eric Nugent MPAA Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 1 hour, 22 minutes Release Date: Nov. 29, 2022 Rated: 4.5 stars out of 5
Ian Kane is an U.S. Army veteran, author, filmmaker, and actor. He is dedicated to the development and production of innovative, thought-provoking, character-driven films and books of the highest quality.
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