Traditionalism and Paganism: Conversation with Survive the Jive

With Usura Canto XLV - Ezra Pound

Endurance of Tradition in Thailand

Documentary: JRR TOLKIEN:The Maker Of Middle-earth

Simon Thurley on Poundbury and Public Attitude to Modernism

Short Film: The World Is Burning

The World Is Burning (2013) from Oak & Arrow on Vimeo.

A young man returns to a traditional life in rural Newfoundland after tragedy strikes.

The Last Clog Maker in England

This is a video about a man who has devoted his life to reviving the lost craft of clog making

The People vs. Modernism

Innovation and Sacrifice in Modern Farming

The Truth about Pussy Riot

The information war, unleashed by Pussy Riot's desecration of the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow (2012), targets the Byzantine model of government—an alliance of the spiritual and temporal power, which existed in Russia for centuries.

Putin openly opposed Western "humanitarian interventions" in the Arabic world and is not contributing to the war against Assad, where the CIA and Britain have been arming terrorist groups. Now Western powers are stepping up the cultural war on the residual Western culture that exists in Russia. The Byzantine church survived Soviet Communism and has slowly been reasserting its position in the spiritual domain of Russian society. It hardly poses a threat and yet liberal Westerners blindly support Pussy Riot, who have previously been involved in disgraceful public demonstrations including an orgy in a museum and a woman masturbating with a dead chicken in a supermarket. Each of thse were carried out without regard for the effect this might have on any children who could have been present.

The arming of rebel groups in the Arabic world is only a part of the international war against any rival political and ideological systems that exist besides liberal consumer capitalism. The rest of the war is cultural, it is a war of information and ideas and Westerners are totally compliant, accepting their role in the war and passing judgement on any culture in the world which does not correspond to their new ideals. This is now called "the international community" and its pressure groups have the power to destroy culture.

The West has destroyed its own culture and is now doing the same around the world.

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...