
Adam Curtis – Happidrome – Part One - dave446
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/HAPPIDROME-Part-One
======
zwischenzug
Adam Curtis is a fascinating journalist who writes very thought-provoking
articles that seem to come entirely from left-of-field.

He has a great understanding of recent history as well.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis)

All of those articles are great.

~~~
rmchugh
I would perhaps say that Adam Curtis has a great knowledge of recent history,
rather than understanding. His work portrays history as an unending sequence
of conspiracies. While I greatly enjoy his work, I would in no way consider
him an historian. More of a political artist than anything, in that his work
relies primarily on implication, association and inspiration, rather than
empirical evidence.

~~~
calibraxis
Take Edward Bernays — "the father of (modern) public relations".
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays))

His book _Propaganda_ starts with: _" THE conscious and intelligent
manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an
important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen
mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true
ruling power of our country."_
([http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html))

So when Adam Curtis writes documentaries on people like him, he may sound to
some like a conspiracy theorist, because that's how some of the profiled
creeps themselves sound. (But of course, "conspiracy theorist" is often
misused to throw muck at people who focus on structural analysis.)

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escapologybb
Here's the excellent Anarchism in America mentioned in the article. [0]

[0]:[https://archive.org/details/AnarchismInAmerica1983](https://archive.org/details/AnarchismInAmerica1983)

~~~
riffraff
thanks for sharing this. By the way, any idea what does `Keywords: "yeah pooh
oh kay"` mean in that page? It's rather odd.

~~~
escapologybb
Hmm. I hadn't noticed that, and I have no idea sorry!

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personlurking
Interesting that the Tim Cook piece garnered 3k+ points/1k comments while
Curtis gets 68/17\. A CEO's sexual preference pales in comparison to the
problems and ideas that Curtis exposes, IMO.

~~~
equoid
Neither interesting, nor surprising really. Curtis requires people to pay
attention and think before they comprehend what he is saying. The Cook piece
merely required them to click "like".

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sebastianconcpt
Adam Curtis is my favirite docummentarist. All his docummentaries are great.

Specially The Century of the Self
[http://vimeo.com/91200667](http://vimeo.com/91200667)

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dkural
For the record, PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the US, the
EU, NATO, Canada, Japan, Australia, and at also at the state level by Germany,
Spain, the UK, Netherlands etc. This organization is responsible for suicide
bombings, roadside bombs, kidnappings & murder of both Turks and Kurds.

This doesn't justify repressive policies against any ethnic group, or minority
- including the Kurds, of course. When people want Gay Marriage in the US,
it's not like they form a terrorist organization and blow people up.

~~~
monochr
If gays were treated 1/100th as bad as any minority in turkey we would have
the gay liberation army fighting an insurgency.

You are talking about the country that invented the true modern genocide,
applied it to the Armenians, and still arrests anyone within its borders who
dares say they did any of the above.

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benaston
I love Adam Curtis' work, but I can't help but feel that this "peering behind
the curtain" is all a bit passé. I think many (most?) people people are aware
at some level of the media manipulation of populations using crude
psychological ploys, the hegemony of the big banks and multinationals and the
hidden agendas of so-called benevolent nation states and governments. More
interesting is what we (can?, should?) do about it?

~~~
peteretep

        > I think many (most?) people people are aware at some 
        > level of the media manipulation of populations using
        > crude psychological ploys, the hegemony of the big banks
        > and multinationals and the hidden agendas of so-called
        > benevolent nation states and governments.
    

I think everyone acts in their own self interest, and trying to gussy it up as
a conspiracy is pretty counter-productive.

If you take any kind of historical perspective, then the ability of the rich
and powerful to control the proletariat or bend the world to their will is at
an all time low. I welcome any research or sensible citation that counters
that, because to me it seems prima facie, and 2 minutes Googling suggests we
live in a more democratic world than at any time in history.

US special interest groups are still worrying, as is their ability to
influence the foreign policy of the world's biggest military force, but surely
they're more worrying because we know more about how they work than ever, and
there's considerably more transparency? Arguably the big let-down of the Obama
presidency was his inability to work effectively within the system he was part
of (as, say, a contrast to Bill Clinton). Labour organizations / Unions
unambiguously count as special interest groups, which is sort of ironic.

Anywho, your real point was:

    
    
        > More interesting is what we (can?, should?) do about it?
    

I think you can get involved with good faith technological and political
movements that want to increase transparency. In no particular order, and with
no particular claim to exhaustiveness, I am impressed by:

* [https://www.mysociety.org/](https://www.mysociety.org/) \- British charity and tech-dev company with many projects that increase government transparency * [https://gds.blog.gov.uk/](https://gds.blog.gov.uk/) \- UK civil-service digital service * [http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/11/fact-s...](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/11/fact-sheet-improving-and-simplifying-digital-services) \- American equivalent of the above * Mozilla - perhaps the world's only/biggest technology NGO? * [https://mayday.us/](https://mayday.us/) \- Mayday PAC * The BBC

Are any of the above perfect? Of course not. Are they all focussed on making
the world / their country a better place? I think the answer is unambiguously
yes.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
Absolutely agree one can get involved to change things. Just one nitpick.
There are quite a few technology NGOs, not only Mozilla. I work for one, but
there are many more.

~~~
peteretep
Please share: who do you work for, and who else is worth looking at?

~~~
bjelkeman-again
I work at [http://Akvo.org](http://Akvo.org)

A bunch can be found at: [http://opengovhub.org](http://opengovhub.org)

Others:

[https://okfn.org](https://okfn.org)

[http://www.aidinfo.org](http://www.aidinfo.org)

There are many more, but these are a start.

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Joeboy
Dunno if this is why this is here, but today is an international day of
solidarity for Kobane / YPG / YPJ (opinions vary on which).

People in the UK might want to support the campaign to
[http://delistthepkk.com/](http://delistthepkk.com/)

Edit: It's not that I can't think of reasons why somebody might want to
downvote my comment, but it's frustrating not getting to find out which reason
it was.

