George Floyd

[padraig (u.s.)]

how do people not burn out into misanthropy?

hope for the best, prepare the worst. you'll only ever be pleasantly surprised.

misanthropy is its own kind of hubris. who are you or I or anyone to hate humanity?

there's a slightly longer explanation that involves philosophy, and art, but that sums it up about as well.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

the west wing

ah yes

what if a more liberal Bill Clinton, but deeply principled and an exemplar of personal morality and virtue? and a Nobel-winning economist, just for kicks

what if we rewrote Rwanda so that the one time military intervention was truly called for, we did it and prevented the genocide?

and so on

literal neoliberal fan fiction, granted the fan being maybe the greatest screenwriter of his generation

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

on the topic of hypernormalization, neoliberalism, and where we are now

for one, look at Russia immediately after the downfall of communism

who had a major role in the absolute disaster of its transition from centrally planned to market economy?

none other than Lawerence Summers (and his protege Andrei Schleifer, among others)

out of that absolute chaos - life expectancy plummeting, per capita income down 1/3, the country wealth in the hands of oligarchs, Chechnya I, etc

comes what? Putin and along with him Vladislav Surkov, the literal architect of hypernormalization

from where we get to election meddling, Brexit, Trump, etc

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

is that to say neoliberals are directly responsible for where we are now? not exactly, that's not how things work

but they shoulder some large part of the blame

it's [various Adam Curtis documentary tropes, ominous voice] all connected

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

everyone who's interested would do well to read Bernays - another huge Curtis touchstone - as well

who in 1947 (!) wrote "The United States has become a small room in which a single whisper is magnified thousands of times"

"The Engineering of Consent" which predates Manufacturing Consent by 30 years and makes the same points better in 1/100th the space

 

[pattycakes_]

Fun fact: Netflix was founded by Bernays' nephew #jussayin

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

he's also a great-nephew of Freud! it's basically an Adam Curtis wet dream come to life [ominous Clint Mansell music plays]

 

[pattycakes_]

For sure. Century of the Self was formative watching for me when it came on telly all those years ago. All roads lead to uncle Siggy!

 

[sus]

Is that doc what the title indicates? I've been interested since I came across a Roy Baumeister quote about how the self had displaced religion in the 20th C as the new center of worship & devotion

asceticism & ego-libido & what not

 

[pattycakes_]

Have a look. Curtis put most, if not all of his stuff online for free. It's all worth watching

Adam Curtis Films » Thought Maybe

thoughtmaybe.com

 

[sus]

I'm still tryna finish his one on Soviet science & engineering! But I'll cue it up

 

[pattycakes_]

Fun fact: Netflix was founded by Bernays' nephew #jussayin

Fwiw he's not there anymore

www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/business/media/netflix-chief-executive-reed-hastings-marc-randolph.amp.html

But still.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

to be clear - if it isn't from the bracketed asides above - I think one should definitely take Curtis with a significant pinch of salt

not that his work isn't worth watching, it is

but as a starting rather than ending point, he being a popularizer - a fine thing to be, no shade - rather than an originator of ideas

which makes sense, given that he's a journalist rather than a theorist or historian

only that sometimes his work gets taken as a mind-blowing key to unlocking the hidden levers of reality, or whatever

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

and Curtis aside

I do think you can draw a clear line from post-Cold War neoliberal foreign and economic policy to hypernormalization and Trump

as an unintended but still direct higher-order consequence

the immediate consequence preceding it - the chaos of 90s Russia - having been eminently foreseeable

the West's problem with Russia - and by extension, Russia's influence on our own internal problems - being a direct outcome of that original sin

it's a good lesson that governments seem not to learn - don't kick your powerful enemy when he's down, unless you intend to finish the job

and since "finishing the job" is unthinkable - thankfully - in most modern circumstances, don't kick

 

[pattycakes_]

to be clear - if it isn't from the bracketed asides above - I think one should definitely take Curtis with a significant pinch of salt

not that his work isn't worth watching, it is

but as a starting rather than ending point, he being a popularizer - a fine thing to be, no shade - rather than an originator of ideas

which makes sense, given that he's a journalist rather than a theorist or historian

only that sometimes his work gets taken as a mind-blowing key to unlocking the hidden levers of reality, or whatever

It's entertainment heavy, but that's what makes him such a great artist imo. Even a palooka like me can understand the inner workings of the world on a rudimentary level. His full access to the entire BBC archive (interesting that he's BBC based, when you think about it) of all their footage dating back to (I think) the 50s there for him to cut up and make those potent historic collages. In interview he said its really gruelling work going through hours and hours of footage, but often it's the extra bits where the cameras were left rolling and you see stuff like Yasser Arafat scratching his arse at the UN that that make for compelling visual zingers.

Some of his critics have valid points about him stringing barely linked events together to mark seismic shifts in political direction. But for me, it's more that he's having fun with the artistic freedom he's been given and he makes sure to leave plenty of breadcrumbs for you to do your own homework, if you so choose.

 

[DannyL]

It's entertainment heavy, but that's what makes him such a great artist imo. Even a palooka like me can understand the inner workings of the world on a rudimentary level.

I think the problem with Curtis is entirely that he creates this impression, and it isn't true. You get a novel take, at best. His blog pieces are maybe better. They don't have the institutional weight of being a prestige doc, and come over more as sketches rather than grand theories.

 

[DannyL]

I thought Bitter Lake was particularly bad in this regard. No one should be allowed to make documentaries about the Middle East unless they feature a cast made up 95%t of people who are actually natives of these countries.

 

[shiels]

For sure. Century of the Self was formative watching for me when it came on telly all those years ago. All roads lead to uncle Siggy!

same. didn't know that about netflix though. jeez

 

[pattycakes_]

I think the problem with Curtis is entirely that he creates this impression, and it isn't true. You get a novel take, at best. His blog pieces are maybe better. They don't have the institutional weight of being a prestige doc, and come over more as sketches rather than grand theories.

That's on the watcher to do their own work once they've watched it. It's not Curtis' fault. He's a great entertainer and thought provoker, and he's helped me understand a lot of things I probably wouldn't have if I'd never seen his docs at the age when I saw them

 

[DannyL]

I don't hate them, I liked Century of the Self a lot, but I think it's diminishing returns after that. Bitter Lake really got up my nose as is obvious.