The Century Of The Self

Adam Curtis, the man who made this doco is fantastic, as others have said he has a few more docos in a similar vein, power of nightmares being one. BBC also runs his blog where he does regular micro docos. excellent stuff and always a man to draw seperate threads into a coherent narrative

An oldie but a goodie.

I would have thought this video would have been posted on here in triplicates..

Still..the more people that are educated the better for us all.

I love Adam Curtis documentaries, he is excellent.... Century of Self I have on DVD, bought his collection from some seller on ebay a few years ago.


The Power of Nightmares is absolutely amazing


Part 1



Part 2




Part 3





You should also check out "All watched over by Machines of Loving Grace"


Both fantastic Documentaries.

reply to post by mekhanics


And, what, to destroy the whole Western Economics, and to send all to medieval feudal--- ? I think that should be continued...

All of Adam Curtis' BBC documentary series are well worth watching and are all done in the same style as this. I think the recent Oliver Stone documentary series about the USA was influenced by his style, it was very similar.

reply to post by mekhanics


We are loosing ourselves, it only a matter of time before we find ourselves again.

I do not believe I had ever heard of or realized who Bernays was until I majored in Communication college. This guy and many others are treated like gods. They are pushed as being all inspiring and those who brought in a new era of business. I was only more disgusted the more that I learned. Public Relations and Marketing are the #1 jobs that college grads want to get into (besides technology).

I also majored in Sociology and took many Psychology courses as well as Business. Understanding the underlying psychological manipulation that goes on in the corporate world has made me better prepared in raising children in my opinion. I restrict access to television, I do not subscribe to cable networks, and I fully inform my children of how the manipulation works. We are not born consumers.

Also, always stick to a list when going into any chain store...they get you to buy more without you ever realizing it. Do not allow yourself to be manipulated.

Thank you for watching good people

Also, read Propaganda (1928)

By Edward Bernays

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.

Well thanks to you!

Not sure how in bloody 'eck I've not seen this.

Going to make a night out of this & the 'Nightmares' too!

Originally posted by Jeremiah65
Excellent video...I know it well. I have the full 4 hour version bookmarked that I share often.

The theories and discoveries of Freud and the exploitation of those by his nephew is a big part of how we got to where we are today. The board rooms, advertisers and even our "benevolent" (/sarcasm) Gov have all expanded the research into Freud's and Bernays' work.

I won't say that people are being brainwashed as that sounds crazy as a football bat...but people are heavily influenced by media at a subconscious level..."My sports hero...favorite musician...etc...wears those shoes and that kinda shirt so I must have it"...So we spend our hard earned money on stupid crap we have been subconsciously influenced to want...

Nice job putting this in a thread by itself. I will be watching this thread to see how others absorb all the information in here and what they have to say about it.

edit on 2/20/2013 by Jeremiah65 because: (no reason given)

Do the same .Think I've shared that film as often as I can. Makes me wonder if that's why I have posts in other places go missing. But that's not for here.

It's so obvious in televsions game of opiate the public . I have only had a tv in my house for one year in my entire adult life. Similarly , why I think mall is a four letter word. Knew we were meat to the masters when all government documents called us; "consumers" The use of language, semantics, disinformation, news stories etc to demonize the disabled in the UK and here is an obvious outgrowth of using that technique. Murdoch has done his job well. Hate crime against the disabled is up 75 percent in the UK. It can be noted that stats are harder to find here. As anyone who reads can see, the tories got their ideas from some of ours. When the public didn't flinch when the privatization bell was rung in the eighties and the nineties killed the disabled and herede them into homelessness, the public let not one peep out. So, they took their ideas across the pond.
Herd thinning is what I call it. Machiavellian in methodolgy, Hitlerian in intent with all their tricks thrown in for good measure and Orwellian for all of us in goal.


The use of media to manipulate the public with a divide and conquer chess game is only new because it spreads faster than in the past. Divde and conquer is as old as Rome if I remember correctly.

Originally posted by darkbake
I find it interesting that psychologists have been manipulating the American mind for so long - and dangerous. I did learn about this kind of thing while studying for my psychology major... a lot of this is documented.

But the real question is, what is the next generation of psychologists going to decide to social-engineer our society into? And also, famous artists - who is influencing them, or are they truly making the art themselves?

edit on 20-2-2013 by darkbake because: (no reason given)

Been considering this point of late. Is it "Art imimtates life" as we have been led to believe? Or, is it the art we are seeing reflects the life other people want us to have? Interesting consideration.

I wanted to ad a couple of videos in the same spirit of the main topic...I hope you enjoy them. A couple of them have moments of "over the top" but the message is still good...





Now to lighten it up, here are a couple of music videos with a similar and clever message...enjoy!





ETA:

I hope this sinks in. All 4 of these videos have apowerful message, but to me...the most important one is the second music video...there is war going on for your mind...and it is true.

Those in control are seeking to control everything...what you think, what you believe, how you act and how you spend your money...and you know what?...they are winning...just look down at your shoes...in your closet or in your driveway at the car you drive...

Saw an Adam Curtis documentary series years ago called "the trap" well worth watching, its up on youtube.

The worrying thing is people are so easy to manipulate... that's the scary and equally depressing thing. How many of us can look back and see these behaviors in ourselves, the lives we live, the clothes we wear, food we eat, places we socialize...etc. People are like audience members..when a few people stand up to give a standing ovation to a entertainer on stage, everyone else stands up too, weather they all felt the performer warranted such praise or not, your compelled to stand, such is the peer pressure, such is the conformity, such is the human mind. This is just one trivial example. Breaking this automatic behavior is near to impossible. Because when people are in groups their behavior is most often controlled by the group, they have lost a large part of their self control. The mind set of the group, or the few strong willed people in the group, control the masses.