Century of the Self - amazing documentary - MUST SEE

[bashi]

very long article, keith, but that approach does not bring the discussion further.

I am looking at the TV adds with a complete different eye, after seeing the videos. I can see from where they are originating, and why a particular approach has been chosen to appeal to issues mentioned in the vids.

[John White]

I rather like Keiths post myself: I recognise his selfless courage in showing his soul through it

But regarding the topic, Adam Curtis certainly broke the mould with his documentaries for the Beeb

For the benefit of non-brit forum members I should point out they were originally broadcast at the obscure end of the television schedules so did'nt get large coverage at the time of broadcast... I think "power of nightmares" probably made the largest splash... since then its fair to say they have become net legends, and I'm delighted if this thread results in people discovering them for the first time

They are a marvellous primer for the subject matter involved, and anyone making a few notes of key names and words throughout the programmes will have a brilliant map sketched out for them to go on and discover a whole lot more

I feel the most significant thing is to recognise that even though it names key players and so on, the individuals themselves are not what is truly important... it is recognising that they were the foci for establishing patterns of thought that now ripple all around the planet

It's seeing those patterns that truly provide the means to develop an elevated view above "consensus trance"

[Operator]

"The Century of the Self" is a must see documentary IMHO for everyone who still thinks that a certain way of thinking by an elite group is far fetched.
And as said above it isn't even an alternative media production ... they just let you know what's indeed out there for almost a century ...

[norman]

This man's documentaries are very broadly informed in one sense but something doesn't sit right with me about what he's trying to say with them.

When The Power of Nightmares first aired I was told about it and rushed over to a friends house to watch it from VHS video tape. I felt myself being slapped around all over by incredible heartless academic thrust that I had a hunch was not meant for me at all. I found it creepily justifying the lowest possible analysis of human nature.

I didn't make any more sense of it than that at the time but other thoughts have gathered around it since. When Kerry Cassidy recently said, in conversation with Bill, that the 'story' of the Pentagon Missile and the frame up of an arms dealer was really meant for the 'higher ups' I didn't think she was right but this documentary has reminded me that there is a multi layer narrative going on and not all 'propaganda' is aimed at the throngs of wishful life livers with hearts for placards.

The BBC schedule timing may also be a clue that it's aimed at those who ( falsely, in my view ) believe they are on the winning team that has nothing to fear by thinking the unthinkable.

[John White]

I agree with you Norman that Adam Curtis is not the font of all answers... from interviews I know he does not hold to (or admit) to any kind of conspiratorial views. These documentaries are not "magic bullets" with an off-the-peg world view to simply be copied. But then, I have some confidence that we are all pretty much past that here anyway. What they are is a concentrated dose of television with more truth-per-hour than pretty much anything that has ever been broadcast on television anywhere on the planet

The day we don't require due diligence in all things is the day we give up and go back to sleep

[3optic]

Posted by Operator (here)
"The Century of the Self" is a must see documentary IMHO for everyone who still thinks that a certain way of thinking by an elite group is far fetched.
And as said above it isn't even an alternative media production ... they just let you know what's indeed out there for almost a century ...

Even if one accepts the elite group thesis this doc is useful and highly entertaining imo. There are a lot of players in this game. To reduce it to only an NWO scenario is overly simplistic. Curtis makes it clear that, in his view many of these social trends were manipulated and some were organic. It's possible that both the elite manipulation scenario and the human history as chaotic unfolding can co-exist.

[John White]

Posted by 3optic (here)
Even if one accepts the elite group thesis this doc is useful and highly entertaining imo. There are a lot of players in this game. To reduce it to only an NWO scenario is overly simplistic. Curtis makes it clear that many of these social trends were manipulated and some were organic. It's possible that both the elite manipulation scenario and the human history as chaotic unfolding can co-exist.

And even inevitable. It requires essential movement in raw creativity for there to be anything TO manipulate

[MariaDine]

Fractalius, very interessing videos ! Thank you very much !

[Fractalius]

Another video I would like to add is away from the Curtis series but relates well regards the power of the media.

This time it is a PBS Frontline doco, called The Merchants of Cool. Apologies and celebrations if this is already well known.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YkVO-_U88Ds

[Carmody]

Posted by bashi (here)
very long article, keith, but that approach does not bring the discussion further.

I am looking at the TV adds with a complete different eye, after seeing the videos. I can see from where they are originating, and why a particular approach has been chosen to appeal to issues mentioned in the vids.

Until I removed Television from my life, I had been watching TV ads solely to see where billions of dollars brought cutting edge psychology research, for the purposes of gain access to people's minds. I had heard this 'factoid' about advertising as industries go, when I was about 13 years of age...and my position, from then on, was to check advertisements to see what the latest people herding and driving techniques were going to be.

I reasoned that the money was so powerfully aligned with this point, it being the financial driver of television itself, in the greater context. Advertising attempted to, for example, step into the comfort zone in a very classy and understated way..to relax the eye, to relax the mind, to open them up for the ramming in of the message ..via Automotive adverts and McDonald's adverts in the..mid-late 80's, IIRC. Some went to the classy feeling soft sell, finding it more powerful. As the monkey began to understand the tactics, then the wind shifted. Yet again.

[keiththompsonmusic]

My apologies for an overly long piece, I had just written it, sent it to my own lists and aired it on my show yesterday too. Having lived in N.Ireland and Canada this lifetime, I have been given two different media ploys to view in action with the same intentions behind them. We have a TV but it's used mostly for movies, which we as a family dissect...it's actually quite fun...and when we do watch TV, it's usually for certain things more educational and comedy. We all watch TV very little and it's always with our own eyes, not the glazed over look the programming is hoping for, court room/cop shows have become comedies for us and have been for a long time. We are a family of musicians and writers, painters and singers where the creative energies rule and the self is allowed to thrive. The constant barrage we all endure from our day to day lives makes me wonder how so many of us were able to get through and I am seeing these invisible walls fall down all around me with people on a daily basis here. My gratitude knows no bounds for those that truly know who they are and then do something about it such as people like all of you. I see many of the "elite" groups being used as pawns to keep the frequencies of this planet in a low and negative tone while thinking they are the ones in control. For me, the truth is simple in that the only way one can be controlled is if one resonates to being controlled. It's just a matter of controlling your own dial and tuning it up a notch to change the station. Around here, our "concert pitch" is 432 hz, not the newly prescribed (1955) 440 hz...tuned to the heart, not the mind....peace, honour and love with all, kt

[E.Yes]

What a great documentarian, I hadn't heard of him or his films. He has a blog at the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/

[SomaSmith]

Thank you for sharing this.

I have played this video while having friends over in hopes that someone would pay attention.
There is alot to learn about the history of the "P.R." machine that we are living in.

Speaking as a product of the 90's this definitely removed the haze of centimentality surrounding my views of pop-culture from decades past.

[panopticon]

G'day The One,

Adam Curtis is one of my favourite documentary makers (along with John Pilger and here's the address for Pilger's weblog).
'The Century Of The Self' is from 2002 and is brilliant.
He really knows his stuff and taught politics at Oxford for awhile.
His weblog is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/

The Century Of The Self is available in one 4 hour video:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

I would advise everyone who is interested to watch all his documentaries (they're on archive.org) as his in depth analysis of the 20th Century is extremely revealing.

Be aware he is not a conspiracy theorist and only talks about facts.
So while his views are at time quite mainstream (his documentaries are usually through the BBC) his analysis of history is, in my opinion anyway, brilliant. He frequently contradicts main stream understandings and may supply a different overview of 20th Century history for some "tough nuts".

An excellent suggested video The One!

Kind Regards,
Panopticon

Sources:
http://www.archive.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pilger
http://www.johnpilger.com/

[Terra]

Hi,

Please could we move this to Books, Videos, Articles, etc. section mods. where it will be seen more.
It is a brilliant documentary and needs more viewing, nice one for posting it The One. (sorry for the request bud, I just repeated the same post in another thread).

It is amazing to learn how and who created the model for our society we live in today. Makes me realise how we just go on repeating in circles, to conform to how they want us to be.
...and also how the big corporates rise to thier mammoth status through clever social engineering.

Thankyou.

[Bill Ryan]

-------

Part Three is the most riveting -- by far. Please see my post #5 on the previous page.

This is the single most mind-blowing piece of documentary I've ever seen -- vitally important for our times. It tells the story about how the first attempt to take back the planet was defeated... by very cleverly targeted commercialism.

[Carmody]

The other show that puts meat on the bones of all this, including faces, is the film "The American Ruling Class'. The entire film is about the realities of today and what is going on today, in those corporations, government programs, and political offices. Seeing some of the people involved answer direct questions on this subject in a direct fashion....is not to be missed.

[onawah]

The whole documentary can be seen at this link:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

Is this the one you were referring to, Carmody?:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-jxJv5Gebeo

[Jean-Luc]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
-------

Part Three is the most riveting -- by far. Please see my post #5 on the previous page.

This is the single most mind-blowing piece of documentary I've ever seen -- vitally important for our times. It tells the story about how the first attempt to take back the planet was defeated... by very cleverly targeted commercialism.

Amazing to see how many supposedly aware people have fallen into the trap of pseudo self-realization through materialism.

To echo what's being said at 2:54, I'm happy not to have been ever much dependant for my identity on stuff & business in any -- or to be honest, hardly -- sort of way.

Hence probably my fascination for the ease, when done with care and consciousness, with which you can be much self-reliant in hundreds of ways from sowing your own garden, to producing your own bread or yogurt, and inevitably, also producing your own energy

This then releases so much time for truly important things.

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

Here is the blog of Adam Curtis - they guy that made the doc. I have been using this doc to show media students for years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/

I also recommend Power Of Nightmares here;
http://curtisnightmare.blogspot.co.uk/

It covers the rise of Islamism in the Arab world and how Neoconservatism in the United States needed to inflate a myth of a dangerous enemy in order to draw people to support them.

Amazing stuff.


Here is his wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis

His most recent doc, "All watched over by loving machines" is also fantastic!

https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799353