Komunikasi dan Komodifikasi, an important new book by Idi Subandy Ibrahim and Bachruddin Ali Akhmad, explores the global inequalities of the global system, a system in which post-colonial nations like Indonesia are subject to economic exploitation and hegemonic messages about gender and society from multinational conglomerates and powerful foreign nations. They reveal the sinister mechanisms of media propaganda and global capitalist expansion (along with the limited agency of the consumer and the possibilities of alternative forms of media). Is it better, then, for Indonesia to simply opt out of this oppressive system and strive for self-sufficiency?