All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

[Slyph]

Cain, can I dump linx to more Adam Curtis in here or is this just AWOBMOLB... I watched his Bearings' Bank doc recently, that was a good one.

[Cain]

Go for it, you don't need my permission.  So long as they're on Youtube or something, of course.

Personally, I think everyone should watch his Power of Nightmares, The Mayfair Set and The Living Dead, at the very minimum.

[Cramulus]

if they're anywhere near as good as All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, I definitely will. What are those ones about, and which should I start with?

[Slyph]

the Power of Nightmares is in part about how Neo-Conservatism and Islamism are co-parasitic. Since it's a familiar subject, I'd start with that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt-FyuuWlWQ

[Cain]

if they're anywhere near as good as All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, I definitely will. What are those ones about, and which should I start with?

The Power of Nightmares is about Al-Qaeda, the Neoconservatives and the ideological move from promising Utopia to promising protection from Dystopia.

The Mayfair set is about 4 men who set the tone for much of the Thatcher years, commando turned mercenary Col. David Sterling, investment advice writer Jim Slater, how corporate asset-stripper and raider James Goldsmith became one of the wealthiest men in the world and the last one focused on the former owner of Harrods, Tiny Rowland.

The Living Dead is about how history and memory (both national and individual) are manipulated by politicans, such as repressed memories from WWII and mind control programs by the CIA.

Also of interest are The Century of the Self, which details how psychiatry, advertising, propaganda and politics are linked, The Trap, which criticizes the abuses of game theory and simplistic notions of freedom, and Pandora's Box, which is about the consequences of technocratic rationalism.

[Slyph]

You forgot "25 Million Pounds"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUaCo_bPePw

"Barings Bank (1762 to 1995) was the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million ($1.3 billion) due to speculative investing, primarily in futures contracts, at the bank's Singapore office."

[Cain]

I haven't actually seen that one yet, so I decided not to comment.

I didn't include It Felt Like A Kiss for the same reason.

[Slyph]

It Felt Like A Kiss is p.short, I think it was shown in a gallery space and was only part of a larger "project" but I may be wrong.

[Cain]

Also, Kai, I watched the first two last night.

As far as I can tell, he was 100% correct in his description of what went down in the 90s.  I've read Stiglitz's own account of the affair, as well as more general books dealing with the 1998 Asian Crisis (as it came to be known) and he's absolutely right on that score.  Couldn't say about the second one much, aside from the Club of Rome, would consider that more your area of expertise (I will say though, like the environmentalists in the documentary, I am inherently suspicious of claims to self-regulating systems and "balance", for much the same reasons.  I'm sympathetic to certain strands of environmentalism, but my suspicions pre-date that).

[Cain]

It Felt Like A Kiss is p.short, I think it was shown in a gallery space and was only part of a larger "project" but I may be wrong.

Yeah, it was a mixed media project.  I have some clips from it though, which were part of a larger Adam Curtis torrent I downloaded a couple of years back.

[Rumckle]

I just watched The Trap (Curtis' 2006/7 doco) over the weekend. It was pretty well put together, good view of how our conception of Freedom has changed, and how our politicians keep falling into the traps of the past in the pursuit of progress and Freedom.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Am I the only one who felt like the last episode of Machines was a little bit rambling? Not that it wasnt good, it just didnt feel like it had as concise of a message as the other two.

[Cain]

It did jump over the place a bit more than the previous two.  AIDS!  GORILLAS!  GAME THEORY!  GOD!  DAWKINS!  DIANE FOSSEY!  The thread was still there, but it's harder to pick out.