03-26-2006, 10:42 PM | #1 |
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BBC's The Power of Nightmares
*** Warning: NOT for the faint of heart ***
As I'm sure few people have heard of this documentary, and it has since come to my attention that it's actually legally downloadable/streamable online for free, I figured a little thread about it wouldn't hurt anyone http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares Part 1 - Baby it's Cold Outside Part 2 - The Phantom Victory Part 3 - The Shadows in the Cave (All three are rougly 60 minutes long) If you find the quality (which is nearly excellent) bothersome, and you have broadbang, get the DVD quality mpeg files here or here Watch and discuss! (or well, atleast watch). Last edited by jjacob; 03-28-2006 at 10:07 PM. |
03-26-2006, 10:58 PM | #2 |
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This is an excellent documentary. While it doesn't present much new information, it's a thought-provoking contextual view of the rise of the "politicals of fear". It presents a rather one-sided argument, but for the other side, simply watch your TV news.
It's really Fahrenheit 9/11 for people with a brain. It even has a really nice presentation style. I linked Jeysie up to this a few days ago, so hopefully you'll have at least one other person to discuss it with soon. I'm planning to watch it again because I've forgotten most of it. It keeps disappearing and reappearing on archive.org, so grab it while you can. Incidentally, as a potentially useful piece of context, this was screened before the July 2005 attacks on London. The references to 'Tube Attack!' in the introduction were, at the time, just speculation. |
03-27-2006, 04:38 PM | #3 | |
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No one else? Bah, I post a free documentary and there are no takers? Ungrateful ***** ***** = j/k |
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03-27-2006, 06:26 PM | #4 | |
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03-27-2006, 06:51 PM | #5 | |
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03-27-2006, 07:31 PM | #6 | ||
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But enough <dirty mind>, watch the doc! |
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03-27-2006, 08:23 PM | #7 |
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03-27-2006, 11:05 PM | #8 | |
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03-28-2006, 03:22 AM | #9 |
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Ah, cool. I'll watch it tonight.
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03-28-2006, 06:00 AM | #10 |
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Cheers, I'll give it a look tomorrow (beer and footy tonight!)
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03-28-2006, 10:23 PM | #11 | |
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Also, I think it's one of the more objective documentaries I've seen so far - for every historian there's a Straussian 'rebuttle' and so on. Ofcourse most of these ideas (of say Richard Perle or Michael Ledeen) sounds so outlandish to non-neocons such as us, that it could be perceived to be one-sided, while it's actually not the case. Ledeen saying the PLO, RAF and even the IRA were secretly run by the Soviet Union may sound like something taken out of context, but you have to realise that's what the hard core of the neoconservative wing actually believed. The funny bit is that they actually made these things up according to Strauss's belief that there needed to be "myths" such as religion and that of "The Nation" (with a unique destiny to fight evil in the world etc.) in order to keep the country from falling into decay at the hands of selfish individualism. Yet somehow they actually started believing in their own myths and fantasies (about the (fall of the) USSR amongst other things) Anyway I digress. Great stuff, going to let it sink in and see the second part tomorrow |
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03-29-2006, 08:38 AM | #12 |
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Just watched the first part: great and frightening. Of course it's always easy to point at the mistakes people made in hindsight. Still, how can anyone see this documentary and STILL believe in the stuff the neo-conservatives are telling? In any case, these people are really scary and in some ways even criminal in their deception.
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03-29-2006, 11:09 AM | #13 |
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I'm only halfway through the first part. It's so interesting! Except I find myself agreeing with Strauss somewhat. Eek. Am I secretly a neocon? I do think Strauss' idea of using myths to control the unwashed masses is super creepy.
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03-29-2006, 02:51 PM | #14 | ||
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Watch the rest and be yet even more mortified.. |
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03-29-2006, 03:17 PM | #15 | |||
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I also find the transformation of the CIA interesting. I hope the next two parts explore this further. (I also laughed when the ex-CIA guy was describing how he and his colleagues had told Casey that this book connecting international terrorism was actually made up of lies that the CIA itself had invented. HA HA.) |
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03-29-2006, 06:42 PM | #16 |
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After watching the three episodes back-to-back I can say I thoroughly enjoyed them, in parts laughed at the absurdity of reality.
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03-29-2006, 08:33 PM | #17 | |||||
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03-30-2006, 01:35 AM | #18 |
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It's completely shocking and makes you wonder what in YOUR has or hasn't been just influenced by black propaganda. Remember, American culture is inexorably tied to European now. 99% of the movies we watch are from America, and with that all their ideologies, virtues and whatnot.
And yes, the ideas of Strauss were not unloveable. Nor were Marx' ideas, or those of Qutb. They all started out of idealism and it's hard not to like idealism. But somewhere along the way, things are lost and followers become more radical, and it's at the edge of the ideologies that their greatness starts to crumble. But their essence is almost never horrifying and even very attractive. Besides, that, it's always gratifying on a personal level to be called the Vanguard of something, an intellectual. Or to hear that your country has a destiny to fulfil, that you are the Good Guys in a valiant battle. It's easy to believe because you want it so desperately to be true. The only way to make everything right is to educate everyone with documentaries and insights such as these. And hope they'll see reason.
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04-02-2006, 02:10 PM | #19 | |||
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Neoconservatives, with all their gained powers, have transformed the myths they once wanted to have the people believe into self-fullfilling prophecies, and disturbingly now seem to believe in them themselves, funny how easily they dropped the "Perry Mason" for "Gunsmoke" I don't know which is more dangerous, the spindoctor or the fundamentalist Quote:
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04-02-2006, 03:14 PM | #20 | |
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It was also shown at Cannes in condensed form. Can you imagine it ever being shown in the US? |
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