Hypernormalisation...A Documentary

Adam Curtis is arguably the stand-out documentary maker around right now. "Bitter Lake" examined how the West has inadvertently stumbled into the ongoing civil war between Sunni and Shia Islam making some dreadful enemies and allies along the way. "Hypernormalisation" continues on a similar theme and it is a brave, bold dissection of the modern world.

You were so much a part of the system that you were unable to see beyond it

This pretty much sums it up. I'm astonished that the BBC allowed this to be made never mind broadcast, considering it is part of the general conspiracy to deceive a gullible mindless public. Perhaps at just under 3 hours they never expected people to sit through it. Everyone should watch this film but few will unfortunately....and if you happen to live across the pond, do not expect to see it in a cinema near you any time soon; it's pure heresy.

Is there a way to bump this thread for activity? I'm concidering making a new thread in light of the election results as the documentary is very related to this issue.The hypernormalisation Adam Curtis talked about is currently in full effect in Amerika, and I'm not even sure people realize it.


The Arab Spring was a revolution engaged through the internet where thousands got together and protested against the government. Due to the nature of our collective reality (hypernormalisation), it didn't lead to much as noone had a vision of a better future, something to grasp at and work towards to. Then ISIS swooped in and gave them a reasonable future: Shariah Law.


What's curently happening in America:

People have been discontent with the corruption and social/economic system for a long time. It's been going on for so long, however, everyone has just grown used to it. We know for a fact politicans lie, we know the system is rigged but nothing ever changes, because noone has a real vision of the future. We know our system is broken from the top down: how banks print money, how money flows through coorporate chains into the pockets of consumers, how it often hinders alot of social, economical and technological progress (It's what alot of conspiracies are about!). We all (every sane educated human being) have known these things to be true for a long time, yet actual change never happens.

Change doesn't happen because noone knows a better a future. Our modern Western world (the past 30 years) has never existed without the corruption we know today. Most -if not every- attempts at alternatives (Venus Project - RBE, Occupy WallStreet, ...) fall flat because there's little to no relatability to our current lives. We struggle to, physically, imagine what our collective utopia would look like, and we've sorta given up. It's going to be Iphones, Facebook, Twitter or simply put just plain pursuit of whatever our society has become for the rest of history, including the corruption. Voting Clinton was, without a doubt, more of the same.

People protested against the establishment by voting on Trump. I have no doubt that if it was Bernie Sanders vs Trump, Sanders would've won easily. But Trump played the "The System is Rigged" card against Hillary to victory. In no small part, might I add, due to the release of wikileaks aka the internet. Trump promises the end of corruption, a "fair" system (which I'm affraid is impossible under capitalism), and as a whole just rode on the massive wave of people wanting change to his precidency.

Unfortunately, Trump also doesn't have a clear vision of this better future. He claims better trade deals, a Great Wall, brining manufacturing back and so on, but we all know that currently at Trump quarters, they're going: "Euhm, so yeah, we won, what the # are we going to do now?" I'm sure they'll have millions of fine details they can start working on...

Because Trump offers no little to no tangible reality of what his future looks like (And I'm going to assume most Hillary voters assume he's got no clue what he's doing), it scares/angries them leading to the current conflict.

I hope I'm not the only one who can see the analogy here, as I think it's what hypernormalisation is about.

a reply to: Vechthaan

Hi, welcome to the conversation, I had particularly poor timing when I created this thread, yet so many could benefit from watching the vid, I also believe this election may have gone differently had people taken the time to educate themselves through watching.

I may be wide of the mark (as I am in the UK) but as in my opinion the people of America have just stuck two fingers up at "the establishment" somehow forgetting that the Republicans are the establishment, the ultra authoritarian arm, furthermore from this point on just how much power will Trump have really?

I imagine very little, he has served his purpose, now the elites will get back to business as usual, but with a twist....they have even more scope to widen the gap than before and all with the electorate's blessing.

Yes I think this documentary really speaks to the current crisis (yes, that is what this is to me).

One last note, I never realised Kissinger was still alive, wonder how much more division he can cause?

Edit: I'm srry for not replying to the actual content of your post. I read it, I agree completely and I have the same questions... I just cant stop ranting about the lack of care for this documentary.

I don't get this. It seems like noone is discussing this anywhere, or atleast I can't seem to find a spot through google. Imdb only shows 7 reviews (very positive, which I like) and the boards are dead.

Is the playtime of nearly 3 hours simply too much of an investment for people? I've listend to various interviews of Adam Curtis, aswell as seen some of his other documentaries. He produces amazing stuff, he's clearly very intelligent and seems like a genuine nice guy simply reporting on stuff noone else is. This is not some cooky, low budget, "out there" documentary. This is a full fledged, well put together analysis of today's zeitgeist and how it was created.

My facebook is overflowing with posts by fellow Belgians who are in complete shock that Trump managed to win. The media in Belgium (And Europe) has been extremely biased towards HIllary. Trump littereally only gets mocked on our television, there's little to no reporting on wikileaks, other than that "they released more emails about Hillary Clinton" and that's it negative. The content doesn't get discussed (at all) which is shocking concidering the extreme amount of -real- conspiracy they contain, and there's never a conclusion drawn regarding Hillary.

So I understand why people are shocked, they really assumed Hillary was "just" another, typical corrupt politician, and Trump only cares about molesting women, building a wall and insulting minorities. Yet, 2 days and ticking now, and people are still oblivious to the fact what's really going on. Atleast by now, quite alot of people (here in Belgium) are starting to understand it was a protest vote.

Is there really no hope for humanity? Here you have a very well put-together piece of journalism about history spanning the past 40 years up to this point, involving "The powers that be", how they constructed the current financial system, Trump, the internet, modern muslim extremism and how/why it was created and much more.

This exposes so much, and noone seems to give a crap. I just do not understand.

a reply to: Vechthaan

Perhaps the truth is too rich for some people...they say they want it, but to quote a famous line in a movie "You can't handle the truth!"

Or, more likely, people can't cope with nearly a 3 hour documentary, which is ridiculous given that my 13 year old son entirely independent of me, not only mentioned its existence, but actually watched the whole thing over several sittings.

So If a 13 year old can watch it..so can an adult.

So many people haven't seen this, I was talking to a friend the other day, she too hasn't seen this and I asked her Gaddaffi...good or bad, she answered bad, because she has been swallowing all the crap fed to her without challenge.

It is one thing to talk conspiracy, wanting to know the truth, quite another not to bother doing your homework.

I look forward to your thread, let me know when you put it up and link me in...pm me.

Surprising: At one point in this (non-UFO) Docu he presents/interprets the Doty/Bennewitz/UFO (etc.) affair.
Unsurprising: It represents (among other things) a component of the social media / memes / cults / conspiracy phenomenon.