The Power of Nightmares
11 09 2006I know the idea of sitting in front of your computer for three hours to watch a documentary is not very appealing. Usually the only thing that’ll keep me in place that long is slumber or adolescent porn.
But if you care one whit about civics - and the culture of fear that 9-11 has enabled (and who and why) - you really need to take the time to watch this brilliant three-part documentary by Adam Curtis of the BBC. Do what you have to do - take breaks, watch it in slices, call me for encouragement, whatever. But DO watch it… all. I found it as riveting as it is sobering.
A quote from the documentary to sum it up:
“We projected our own worst fears, and what we see is a fantasy that has been created… I’m not saying an atrocity might not happen, but what I am saying is that we have an exaggerated perception of the possibility of terrorism that is quite disabling. And we only need to look at the evidence to understand that the figures simply do not bear out the way we have responded as a society.”
- Bill Durodie, director, International Centre for Security Analysis, Kings College
Oh - and another hat tip to Chris Locke for ruining my day.
EDIT: the Google Videos of it disappeared. Try here.
Are the videos available from elsewhere than Google video? Using tor, not using javascript and having all the browser’s identifying info in HTTP requests removed makes it impossible to view their videos.
I found it sliced into six 30-minute pieces on YouTube here and I trust BBC has DVDs available somewhere.
I hate Google Video and YouTube. They could easily let me view the stuff without the damn Flash wrapper (and/or let people download the stuff), but no…
then buy the DVDs and stop whining.
You can download from the Internet Archive. For free.
http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
We’ve been had. The war is lost. The non-existant terrorist have won and our “freedoms” are gone, or fading. It is time for a revolution. A revolution for individual freedoms to be brought back. Without freedoms we are nothing.