We are a country that needs a story. You know, marketing is the word that I used earlier, but it’s really just a new term for propaganda. It might be a very human thing across the board, but we, in America, love a story—we need a story to get involved in. But then everything becomes more about how the story protects a certain perception as we pick sides.

Most people don’t have time to really study the issues. And the media could help us, but there’s capitalistic interest in the media outlets as well. It’s not the old “CBS added a 1 percent profit—that’s all we need to make in order to bankroll our news division,” like the thinking was in [Walter] Cronkite’s day. It’s not that way anymore. I mean, the Internet has done a wonderful thing for us. But democracy doesn’t work unless people are well informed, and I don’t know that we are. People just don’t have the time.

Read the rest of the conversation between Brad Pitt and Guy Ritchie in this months Interview Magazine.