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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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Post subject: Series on the modern world (and how we got here) | |
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Really recommend you drop what you’re doing and check out Adam Curtis’s new documentary series Can’t Get You Out of My Head. It takes a historical overview of basically everything that’s led to the current moment: the ascendance of China, the election of Trump, the fallout from the decline of the British Empire, the rise of technology and the surveillance state, conspiracy theory culture and a whole lot of other stuff. I tend to find ordinary documentaries a little boring, but Curtis’s use of archival footage, music and storytelling is really unusual and interesting.
First episode (out of six) is here: https://youtu.be/MHFrhIAj0ME
(you can find the rest on YouTube easily enough)
Would be interested to hear what other people here make of it. _________________ "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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Sicks Bux
Hal 2003-2019
Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Location: Me Island Ome
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I enjoyed his doco HyperNormalisation, so i'll check it out.
HyperNormalisation can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thLgkQBFTPw _________________ The beatings will continue until moral improves. |
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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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Yep, HyperNormalisation is great! I had been wondering what he would make of the last four years since that came out. _________________ "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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Sicks Bux
Hal 2003-2019
Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Location: Me Island Ome
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Just watched part one. Fascinating stuff. I never knew Chairman Mao's wife was such a character. I'll watch the rest over the weekend. _________________ The beatings will continue until moral improves. |
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Sicks Bux
Hal 2003-2019
Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Location: Me Island Ome
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Just finished the series. Amazing. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in world politics and history. _________________ The beatings will continue until moral improves. |
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think positive
Side By Side
Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Location: somewhere
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is it long? I’ll put it on forhubby! Sounds like his thing. _________________ You cant fix stupid, turns out you cant quarantine it either! |
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Sicks Bux
Hal 2003-2019
Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Location: Me Island Ome
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It's a six part mini-series. Each episode goes for a bit over an hour But the final episode is nearly two hours. _________________ The beatings will continue until moral improves. |
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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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I just finished it myself – brilliant series, and I learned so much from it. My only real disappointment is that he didn’t spend more time on the Trump era and had to pack so much in to the last 20-30 minutes of the final episode. It was certainly worth the wait once he started talking about the twin conspiracy theories of Russiagate and Qanon and the way social media algorithms worked to foster that kind of "high-arousal" material, but I reckon he could have easily devoted a whole episode to it.
Some highlights:
• Jiang Qing’s rise and fall (x2)
• The Afeni Shakur trial
• The twentieth-century rebirth of the Illuminati conspiracy theory as the ultimate pisstake of conspiracy theories
• The juxtaposition of Jihadists, the 20th century KKK and late British colonialists as parallel groups born from seemingly benign (and entirely made-up) nostalgia for old Britain.
• Chinese social credit as a fulfilment of BF Skinner’s ideas in Walden Two (if there’s a bleaker picture of the future, it’s hard to imagine one)
• That terrifying Google DeepDream sequence! |
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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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Really good discussion with Curtis about his series here (from 5:00):
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/VhqgvaxzpLc6kvLk8 _________________ "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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Post subject: | |
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Curtis's new project looks very interesting: it's a chronicle of Russia from 1985 to 1999, basically covering the end of the Soviet Union through to the rise of Putin. There's a trailer here that gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect:
https://twitter.com/jonronson/status/1577996825730195456 _________________ "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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