HyperNormalisation (2016)

Director: Adam Curtis
Writer: Adam Curtis

HyperNormalisation is the latest documentary from counter-historian Adam Curtis and it was released last month on BBC iPlayer. In the film, Curtis argues that since the 1970s, governments, financiers, and technological utopians have given up on the complex 'real world' and built a simple 'fake world' that is run by corporations and kept stable by politicians.

Out of all Curtis documentaries, this one I think would be the hardest to explain in rather simple terms. In the aftermath of Trump's presidential election win, we had articles pointing out that Facebook helped him in winning the election because those who rely on Facebook for news tend to be in an echo-chamber where their ideas are not challenged and they kept on being fed what they want to hear because of its algorithm. The basic point about the documentary is that we are living in a times where everyone is searching for a simple narrative and the politicians also follow that. He cites the example of West's relationship with Gaddafi where both of them cynically played the role that the other wanted them to play for the larger audience. The tendency to put blame on supervillains in search of simple narratives. The whole brooha about Saddam Hussein and WMDs after 2001 was just a repeat of how Gaddafi was portrayed in the 80s when the US really knew that it was senior Assad's Syria who were doing it in the 80s. They didn't want to take on Assad then because Reagan's forces were already driven out from Lebanon by Assad's unleashment of Shiite suicide bombers. Of course, everything came back to bite both US and West back because the concept of suicide bombers have mutated now to become more of a Sunni thing. Senior Assad wanted to unite Arab world and now the suicide bombers are tearing it apart.

The catharsis of the documentary comes up with Trump's presidential campaign and how he draws up parallel with Putin's shape shifting reality. It also focuses on Putin's chief enforcer Vladislav Surkov who sees Russia as one big reality show and the same thing is happening in Trump's USA. Last thirty or so years has greatly eroded people's trust in politicians and what it has resulted is that truth of reality is not much important anymore.

The other main strand in the documentary is about how the major movements that started with the help of social media, occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring mainly, have spectacularly failed. You can get people assembled with social media's simple narrative but they don't have an answer to the present system. Liberal left is failing and far right is filling the vacuum all over the World.

Rating: 4.5/5

Pandora's Box (1992)

Created & Narrated By: Adam Curtis

It is Adam Curtis's six part documentary series which looks at the consequences of exploiting technological and and political ideas without understanding and concern for the future. The message is that technocratic-rationalism is not panacea and the way he deals with it is by being nuanced and not by being bizarrely science-phobic like many environmentalists do.

The episodes are:

1) The Engineer's Plot:  The episode is on the socialist experiment of USSR which can be called as a social engineering project with science and reason playing a key role. Lenin had declared that communism means power of the soviet plus electrification. Episode looks into how technology and rationalism was inculcated into the Soviet model even though Stalin evolved it subsequently into putting Engineers at the forefront of Russian economy after a couple of purges leading up to the World War. After the World war they played a key role in the rebuilding of Russia and began to take even more central role in Gosplan, the planning commission responsible for 5 year plans. They ran the country trusting their ability to plan everything ahead and fulfilling the needs of people by conducting surveys and what not. They used to keep a price list of 25 million items as it became more and more ridiculous with increasing complexity. It can be summed up by the conclusion that Russian consumers would conclude that a particular product to be out of fashion if they are available in abundance. 

2) To the Brink of Eternity: This episode outlines how game theorists and strategists, who held sway under McNamara, developed strategies to control the nuclear threat and nuclear arms race during the cold war. Their strategies looked ridiculous when applied to situations like Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam war since it relied very much on the players acting in a rational manner. The focus is on men such as Herman Kahn, Albert Wohlstetter and John von Neumman , based on whom Kubrick had developed the character of Dr. Strangelove. The episode concludes that the post world war two period up to the end of Soviet Union was an anomaly in world history where it had two superpowers which influenced almost every things in the world through a cold war perspective. After the cold war, the complexity increased which is a remarkable conclusion that Curtis drew in 1992 itself and has been proven right by the events after the end of cold war. This can be seen again in his later documentary: 'The Power of Nightmares' which dealt with the engineering of fear among people to keep and exercise power which was adopted by both neo-conservatives in US and Jihadists in Islamic countries.

3) The League of Gentlemen: This episode deals with post world war England coming into terms with its post colonial decline. It documents how the Labour government which came to power in the 1960s, after a Tory driven bubble about to burst, went against the Keynesian logic of depreciating its currency out of insecurity about its  standing in the World only for it to lead into Stagflation. Stagflation was explained by the monetarists like Milton Friedman who influenced the policies of Margaret Thatcher. When she came to power in the 80s inflation was put as the only agenda for the Central Bank and began to tighten the interest rates, against the Keynesian logic, leading to the death of many of England's industries. So in this episode Monetarism was the fad which was used without proper understanding of the consequences and the conclusion that can be made is that Economics is not a Science which is something that we all intrinsically know after the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

4) Goodbye Mrs. Ant: This episode deals with the chemical industry which was projected as capable of solving all the problems during the 50s. DDT was hailed and sprayed all over America and is another example of the danger of Corporations taking a technology to make profits without proper understanding/concern about the future. They used Darwin's Natural Selection as justification for the actions that these chemicals take and when the inevitable backlash came in the 70s with Environmentalism, they also used Darwin to justify their actions. The problem is that when both sets of people take extreme and ludicrous positions in these kind of issues what is really gonna happen is worst of both worlds. 

5) Black Power: This episode is about Ghana which after getting its independence projected Volta River Dam project as its flagship program for industrialization. Financing for dam was obtained after roping in US corporation Kaiser to build an Aluminium smelting plant using the power obtained from the dam. By the time the dam was completed the country was reeling with corruption and the ruler with good intentions was replaced by a CIA engineered military coup, with Ghana being another pawn used in cold war. I found this episode to be the most interesting since it highlighted how difficult it is for democracy to survive in a newly independent country. Made me thankful about how things played out in India, despite its democratic precariousness and the nationalist dickheads that rule the country now.

6) A is for Atom: This episode deals with the rise of nuclear technology and industry. It is another case of corporations behaving in a psychopathic manner after hijacking the technology. I really don't understand the clamor for nuclear power in India, at least among those who are in power, since there is no way I could  trust it in such a corrupt and venal system. Even the developed countries struggled with it and the sector as a whole is on the decline which makes it even more dangerous.

Like most of the Adam Curtis documentaries that I have watched it is illuminating as well as depressing. He is someone who can see how things are going to get played out in the future and his prediction, at the time of Arab Spring, that twitter was going to be just an an echo-chamber for like minded people without much scope for true political impact turned out to be precise. What I especially like about him is that he is not a conspiracy theorist since there is no elaborate plan that he is revealing. It is just a case of people in power acting in a self-interested manner making decisions that leads to grave and unintended consequences.

Rating: 5/5 

                                                                        

Bitter Lake (2015)

Created & Narrated by: Adam Curtis

'Bitter Lake' is the latest from the excellent Adam Curtis which was released last week through BBC's iPlayer. It can be best described as a documentary on US-Saudi alliance through the prism of clusterfuck that is Afghanistan. The title comes from the salt water lake in the Suez called 'Great Bitter Lake', where Roosevelt and the then King of Saudi Arabia forged their alliance close to the end of the World War Two. The alliance was built on the need to secure America's supply of oil in exchange for money and weapons with the promise that there won't be any interference from the West regarding the faith of Saudi rulers. The 'House of Saud' which formed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia drew its legitimacy from 'Wahabism', an extremely orthodox form of Islam with a longing for an imagined medieval past. The Saudi rulers have a pact with the Wahabi fundamentalists and the rulers in Saudi have made a habit of exporting the Wahabi ideas outwards so that the clergy don't interfere much with their domestic rule. This has resulted in them setting up Madrasas all over the Isalamic world to promote Wahabism and this is what has happened for example in Paksitani madrasas. So in short the 'House of Saud' has a pact with the devil of Wahabi fundamentalism and USA have the same with the devil of Saudi Arabia. It is perfect time for Adam Curtis to release his latest work considering the death of the Saudi King and dictator Abdullah this week.

The main narrative that is given by Curtis in the documentary is that the politicians from the West have resorted to simplifying complex issues pertaining to Islamic World as a Good versus Evil battle off late. This was done after the 9/11 attack during the ongoing War on Terror. This is a throwback to that Reagan era in which the same was done for funding the Mujaheddin against the Soviets. Everyone knows about how USA aided Osama Bin Laden in the 80s only for him to turn on them later. It was interesting to know that the opium with which he funded his operations since the 90s was also a product of US strategy in Afghanistan. The Americans had helped build a network of dams in Afghanistan in the 50s which caused the water table to rise along with introducing salinity in the soil. This made it very suitable for the cultivation of Poppy from which Opium and its by-products are made. 

    

                                 

The documentary gives us a complete history of Afghanistan from the 1950s and how the policies of the super-powers influenced its course as well how it influenced them back. For this, Curtis use Tarkovsky's 'Solyaris' as an analogy. Got to say it also kind of explained the film for me since I didn't understand much of it when I watched it some years ago. In it, the Cosmonaut encounters a mysterious river in the Alien planet which he thinks has consciousness. They try to influence it using X-Rays but what happens is that the river starts to haunt them by making them face up the ghosts of their past. They start distrusting everything and this is exactly what Curtis is saying happened to the Soviet and US coalition when they tried to influence matters in Afghanistan during the 80s and noughties respectively. The Russians tried to model Afghanistan as an ideal socialist country only for it to corrupt them and haunt them into Soviet breakup after the defeat. In same way the US coalition thought they could export their ideas of Democracy and Freedom only to end in defeat and face up to the fact they themselves believe in nothing and are morally bankrupt. Make no mistake, both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ended in defeats for them and you only need to see the recent state of both countries to recognize that.

Some people might dismiss Curtis as a Conspiracy theorist but I don't agree to it. What he doesn't do is assume that the events that are happening in the World is done with careful planning for a desired outcome. He portrays a World where the policymakers make decisions based on their own self-interest with some tragic unintended consequences. They are just some blundering idiots who are in over their heads to understand the complexities around issue but have the arrogance to think that they can influence such matters. Before 90s they had cold war as an excuse and now the so called war on terror. In an ideal world they should not interfere in matters concerning these countries about which they have limited understanding. Now they have the favorite excuse of preventing genocide of Good people by the evil and continue to interfere in matters when in fact they are largely driven by the defense industry and businesses. Curtis use the example of British Army's experience in the Pashtun region of Afghanistan. The different factions involved in the Civil War used British forces to crush their enemies by pointing out that they are battling Taliban and in effect everyone turned against the British there and in effect they only helped to compound the situation.

The documentary is available in its entirety of Youtube and the link has been embedded with this review. It is a great watch and there is a difference in style employed by Curtis. Rather than purely relying on narration using archive footage, he also uses rather recent footage from the war on terror times without any narration with various effects of tragedy, comedy and irony.

Rating: 5/5

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007)

Writer & Producer: Adam Curtis

The series consist of three one-hour programmes which explore the concept and definition of freedom, specifically, 'how a  simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom.

The first episode, 'Fuck You Buddy', focuses on John Nash's game theory and how it was used in psychiatry to define what normal behavior is for people. The second episode, 'The Lonely Robot', is mainly about game theory applied in biology (Selfish Gene) and how this was taken to mean human beings as rational, predictable beings looking out for their own self interest all the time. Based on this the liberal governments in US and UK started changing public institutes by introducing a system of incentives which only led the public officials and staff gaming the system. The third episode, 'We will Force you to be Free', is mainly about Isaiah Berlin's concept of positive and negative liberty. This concept was new to me in its definition form but had an inkling about it from my readings. It essentially means that if people believe something to be the absolute truth or mechanism for Utopia, it will always lead to repression as End always justify the means. The attitude of Western Governments to regimes in the third world and their affairs are explained in this context.

Some of the arguments are presented in a one-sided way. I don't see what the problem is with the thinking that humans are self-interested. We are self-interested but the problem was introducing a simplistic model based on this view. As is explained in Richard Dawkin's brilliant book, 'Selfish Gene', we follow a 'Tit-for-Tat' policy for most of our decisions which makes it a bit more complicated way of following self-interest. If the technocrats and politicians introduce some stupid incentivized system ripe for gaming, it is their problem and not a slight on the concept.

Still it is  a great watch on the whole.

Rating: 4/5

The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004)

Writer & Producer: Adam Curtis

The three part documentary film compares the rise of Neo-Conservatism in US and Radical Islam in different parts of the Muslim world and paints a picture wherein which they are essentially the same. Both are formed with a view to protect their so called culture from what they see as degrading liberalism by harping on about the role of religion in Society as a source for greater good.

In US, it traces the actions of Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in the '70s and '80s when they had USSR as the phantom enemy of US in a world where it is a battle of good US versus the bad people that  are against it. The philosophy that the Neo-Cons believe in is that you need a state of fear among the people to unite them and politicians can exert their power.  First they invented the declining USSR as the phantom enemy in the '80s and then later the so called Global Terrorism Network. 

The Radical Islamists on the other hand first tried  to get into power using the democratic process so that they could then abolish it. Seeing this threat, the Generals repressed them which led them into declare war on the regimes. When their war didn't get support from people, they declared war on the people who supported democratic process and considered them as fair game for their cause.

The documentary has many funny elements especially with the usage of some film videos and soundtrack. The main players in the archival footage gives all the exposition for Curtis and it unfolds like a tragic comedy. The high point being the fact that Al Qaeda was a term invented by US administration itself in their effort to try Bin Laden in his absence before 9/11 for the Nigerian Embassy bombings. Another one was the new Neo-Con chief of CIA wanting CIA to provide evidence in the '80s for the Soviet Support for various terrorist groups in the World which was based on his readings from a book. When CIA checked the book, it is based purely on the propaganda that CIA itself invented earlier.

I will end with a quote form the documentary itself: 'In a world in which people don't believe in anything, then people who believe in something is their biggest nightmare'.

Rating: 5/5

The Century of the Self (2002)

Writer & Producer: Adam Curtis

This British Television documentary focuses on how the work of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud and Edward Bernays influenced the way corporations and governments have analyzed, dealt with and controlled people.

It is essentially a retelling of 20th century Anglo American history (Majorly American) by focusing on how Freud's ideas and psychoanalysis shaped it. Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, used Freud's ideas that humans are essentially irrational beings, to help corporate sell to them product they don't need by stoking their desire. He is also considered as the father of Public Relations, which essentially is a tool for propaganda. The bubble that led to depression and the rise of Nazis in Germany are put into context. Then there is the post war era of mass produced goods after which in the 70's, backlash against Freud's ideas caused the rise of individualism. This was again exploited by the businesses by putting into use Maslow's idea of Hierarchy of Needs and Self Actualization. This was also used in politics by Reagan and Thatcher to rise into power. The last episode in this four part series focus on how Democrat and Labour parties embraced the idea to come back to power and thereby undermining their own ideologies.

It is a great documentary and a must watch. The entire thing is available on Youtube and is posted above.

Rating: 4.5/5