When Adam Curtis produced the three TV documentaries, “The Power of Nightmares” for the BBC, they were an instant hit in the UK. Spread over three nights, these hour long films charted the rise of both radical Islam and American neoconservatism.
One of many obvious similarities between both opposing forces has been the efforts of the relative few in each camp to force the majority of us into lives we have no wish to live. Their reason for this is, quite simply, their own personal ideology. Politicians no longer consider themselves servants of the people, but rather our masters – decreeing our futures and how we must live our lives. Radical Islam suffers similar arrogance. Curtis highlights how the ‘Islamic state’ kills democracy by negating the need for more than one political party. After all, the law of the Koran is invariable, so there is nothing to debate.
Although the films have played in some small independent theaters in America, it seems the American public will have no opportunity to view them on national television. According to Curtis:
“Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11. A head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there was no way they could show it. He said, ‘Who are you to say this?’ and then he added, ‘We would get slaughtered if we put this out.’ When I was in New York I took a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven’t heard from him.”
Land of the Free?
Having watched all three films recently, I found the research impeccable and the arguments verifiable. They are fully in tune with my own research and ideas.
The last film of the three lays to rest a myth still regularly perpetrated by politicians in the West – that a dirty bomb would cause untold damage if exploded near a major city. Nothing could be further from the truth, as atomic scientists have been saying for years. Politicians, however, still use this and many other fantasies from their arsenal, to try and frighten us.
Most important of all, the films portray how “Al Qaeda” was never more than an invention of the American political psyche , and no worldwide, interlinked network of terrorism ever existed before or after 9/11.
Given the continued, hostile attitude of America towards the Middle East, however, that situation may well already be changing.
Videos of all three films have been released on the internet and may be viewed free of charge HERE.
Filed under: Political machinations