HyperNormalisation - the latest (2016) film by Adam Curtis

[norman]

Adam Curtis

We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, random bomb attacks. And those who are supposed to be in power are paralysed - they have no idea what to do.
This film is the epic story of how we got to this strange place. It explains not only why these chaotic events are happening - but also why we, and our politicians, cannot understand them.
It shows that what has happened is that all of us in the West - not just the politicians and the journalists and the experts, but we ourselves - have retreated into a simplified, and often completely fake version of the world. But because it is all around us we accept it as normal.
But there is another world outside. Forces that politicians tried to forget and bury forty years ago - that then festered and mutated - but which are now turning on us with a vengeful fury. Piercing though the wall of our fake world.

I'm surprised to now find this film on Youtube. It might not be up for long, so grab it fast:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dZ9DridFLCE

This version is 4 minutes longer, so there might be a chunk missing from the first one:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MYR9GroeU6c

[7alon]

Excellent, I've watched literally 30 seconds and I can feel this is gonna be a good one already. Thanks!!!

[norman]

Posted by 7alon (here)
Excellent, I've watched literally 30 seconds and I can feel this is gonna be a good one already. Thanks!!!

It's certainly a worthwhile watch/listen, but, I'll warn you that there are parts that will make you want to strangle the man. There are some very misguided or ill-informed or downright devious bits that spoil it for me. I can't decide if Curtis is trying hard from a long way back, or is actually playing for the wrong side. An example is... errr... well, I won't spoil it for you. wait till you get there.

[sandy]

His films of late are nothing like his first ones IMHO........this one felt somewhat propagandist to me and although a few good points were presented most of it was not !!

Welcome to the MSM/BBC

[norman]

Those 2 versions are now removed. This is another version but it has cuts in it:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Js19h1GW32o

I agree with Sandy that it's basically propaganda ( for system academics ) but it's worth watching just to see how it works.

[MorningFox]

I'd just like to remind or inform everyone that this is actually a BBC production...

Propoganda.

[Noelle]

I watched it yesterday. I was not crazy about the fact that BBC was behind it, and there were segments that turned me off too. But I think the film offered some insight on how our collective consciousness works. One of the best points for me was this idea that it is difficult for the masses to change reality because we cannot envision, as a collective, what a new reality would look like, so we have to go along with it, which perpetuates the false reality. Those who control this reality, the perception management masters, obviously have no reality-envisioning problems. The segment about the Internet/cyber space was interesting as well.

[abmqa]

Posted by norman (here)
Those 2 versions are now removed. This is another version but it has cuts in it:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Js19h1GW32o

I agree with Sandy that it's basically propaganda ( for system academics ) but it's worth watching just to see how it works.

Those versions are now removed from YouTube.

This linked is working as of 7:05 est.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fny99f8amM

[Noelle]

Posted by abmqa (here)

Posted by norman (here)
Those 2 versions are now removed. This is another version but it has cuts in it:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Js19h1GW32o

I agree with Sandy that it's basically propaganda ( for system academics ) but it's worth watching just to see how it works.

Those versions are now removed from YouTube.

This linked is working as of 7:05 est.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fny99f8amM

I found one on YouTube but it could have had cuts.

[Sena]

This version is working today:

https://youtu.be/-fny99f8amM

Interesting commentary in a Guardian article dated 9th Oct. 2016:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...rnormalisation

The global technology companies not only feed a mirror of our obsessions back to us, but increasingly try to normalise our behaviour – collecting data about our health and our habits and selling us a fixed idea of who we should be and what we should like (“if you liked that, you will like this”). The irony of this feedback is that it is fuels prejudice and is fuelled by anger. The more angry users are, the more extreme their emotional states, the more they click, and the more money rolls into Twitter and Facebook and the rest.

Trump is presented in the film as emblematic of this culture, certainly, but how exactly?

“My take on Trump is that he is an inevitable creation of this unreal normal world,” Curtis says. “Politics has become a pantomime or vaudeville in that it creates waves of anger rather than argument. Maybe people like Trump are successful simply because they fuel that anger, in the echo chambers of the internet.”

If Hillary Clinton gets elected next month, Curtis suggests, then the vaudeville will have played its role – the anger will have been expressed and changed nothing.

But what if Trump wins? “It means the pantomime has become reality and starts rampaging around. And then we are ****ed.”

[Noelle]

Posted by Sena (here)
This version is working today:

https://youtu.be/-fny99f8amM

Interesting commentary in a Guardian article dated 9th Oct. 2016:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...rnormalisation

The global technology companies not only feed a mirror of our obsessions back to us, but increasingly try to normalise our behaviour – collecting data about our health and our habits and selling us a fixed idea of who we should be and what we should like (“if you liked that, you will like this”). The irony of this feedback is that it is fuels prejudice and is fuelled by anger. The more angry users are, the more extreme their emotional states, the more they click, and the more money rolls into Twitter and Facebook and the rest.

Trump is presented in the film as emblematic of this culture, certainly, but how exactly?

“My take on Trump is that he is an inevitable creation of this unreal normal world,” Curtis says. “Politics has become a pantomime or vaudeville in that it creates waves of anger rather than argument. Maybe people like Trump are successful simply because they fuel that anger, in the echo chambers of the internet.”

If Hillary Clinton gets elected next month, Curtis suggests, then the vaudeville will have played its role – the anger will have been expressed and changed nothing.

But what if Trump wins? “It means the pantomime has become reality and starts rampaging around. And then we are ****ed.”

I was suspicious of Trump's role in the film. It's not that I think how the film portrays him is false; I am just raising my eyebrows at the timing of the film's release (in the midst of the US presidential election season, in which Trump is running and stunning with his win in the primary).