Documentary: Alone in the Wilderness

I have written before about my admiration of survivalists and hermits.

This film appeals to me for that very reason. Enjoy, if you have an hour spare.

Gods in the Sky

In this entertaining Channel 4 series professor Allan Chapman, brings together the history of astronomy and religion and shows the relationship between paganism and modern science.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/gods-in-the-sky/

False History - Fake Demons - Real War

Another adam Curtis documentary film. The Living Dead: On the Desperate Edge of Now explains how the Second World War was rewritten at the Nuremburg trials and how this false version of history was used to justify other wars in the 20th century.

How Psychoanalysis Oppresses Humanity

 

 "This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud's theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their "engineering of consent".

Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the "father of the public relations industry". Freud's daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, one of the main opponents of Freud's theories.

Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.

The business and, increasingly, the political world uses PR to read and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process was about engaging people's rational, conscious minds, as well as facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population. He cites a Wall Street banker as saying "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs."

In Episode 4 the main characters are Philip Gould and Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. They were part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in the US and New Labor in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the "Democracy" during the 1939 New York World's Fair...

Film: Inferno (1911)

L'Inferno (1911) by Francesco Bertolini
music by Eduard Artemyev

Man and Ape

Jane Goodall on what separates us from the apes | Video on TED.com

Popol Vuh (1981)

The Magic Flute by Mozart - BBC animation