Topic: Century of the Self

Has anyone seen this documentary? I searched NR to see if anyone mentioned it and came up empty. It's quite long (4 hours) but fascinating. There's so much information in it I find it hard to describe. I thought it best to just give the wikipedia link for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

The creator, Adam Curtis, also made "The Power Of Nightmares". If you enjoy this I'd recommend you look that up on Google Video too.


Part 1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 9151&q
Part 2
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 0614&q
Part 3
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 2811&q
Part 4
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 1036&q

"I shall try to fly past those nets"-Stephen Dedalus

Re: Century of the Self

I haven't seen it.  Thanks!

Re: Century of the Self

I saw this linked on another site but didn't watch it because of the time. Thanks for the reminder.

"Violence solves everything. If it's not solving your problems, you aren't using enough of it."

Re: Century of the Self

This series looks really thought provoking so far.  Here's a Part 1 link which might be a bit higher quality.  (though the first few secs are missed)

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid= … 5191428174

"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

"The unknown does not incite fear, but dependence on the known does." - J. Krishnamurti

Re: Century of the Self

All of Adam Curtis' documentaries are a must.

One important connection which was overlooked, intentionally or not, is Clotaire Rapaille and cultural imprinting; a successful practice for a number of years now. People's tastes, personalities, and consumer habits are all planned before birth. Do we really make our own choices or are we simply walking social constructs?

Wilhelm Reich did so much for the mind/body connection. It is unfortunate his work has gone unnoticed, much like Nikola Tesla. I highly suggest looking into Reichian Therapy or one of its derivatives. These techniques are not watered down self-help traps. They produce tangible results immediately. It is a pity that the U.S. Govt. burned all his books and put him in prison (where he died). This seems to be common practice for the U.S. Govt. against any person who develops successful methods to free people.

Freud was a fraud.

Re: Century of the Self

hello!

it's funny, but when i saw the thread i went in and immediately wanted  to comment on the "anti-Freud" philosophy and science of Wilhelm Reich!!  i came in and someone beat me to it (which is so great and in many many ways why i always come  back to NR forums!!)  well, i have to say i watched both of the series of docus mentioned here and they are both tremendous.  the century of self is just so incredible to see how brainwashing is so effective and all pervasive in western culture!

well, as all things come in threes, let me add another series to this list.  and would you guess it is also by Adam Curtis?

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom? (Part 1)
http://video.google.com/url?docid=83725 … GrbVXDV4gw

Anyone can probably navigate to the other two parts if properly inspired and motivated!

I just have to think when i see things on mass manipulation and social controls, how far we have digressed from the true meaning of personal freedoms and liberated souls.    i mean, we really are living more like a large amoebic mass of living cells on the surface of the earth.  kind of gross like slime-mold or something where all the varied parts are  living to be just like the next cell. any aberrant  cells treated like cancer and are attacked and rejected by the mass.  how much could we Be if only each person, each soul, realized their own unique self-sovereignty?  how much more can we realize if we understand how that self is reflected in the Whole and vice versa?

well, i hope everyone has time to check this series out at some point and share with others.  these are all shared in bit torrent as well if you would like a better quality copy to burn on DVD! (it's the only way i can get others to watch some of these videos!)

peace,
pulsar

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."
                                       --Mohandas 'Mahatma' Ghandi

Man as he is now is asleep.  In order to change, we must first awaken.
                                       --Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff

Re: Century of the Self

pulsar wrote:

hello!

it's funny, but when i saw the thread i went in and immediately wanted  to comment on the "anti-Freud" philosophy and science of Wilhelm Reich!!  i came in and someone beat me to it (which is so great and in many many ways why i always come  back to NR forums!!)  well, i have to say i watched both of the series of docus mentioned here and they are both tremendous.  the century of self is just so incredible to see how brainwashing is so effective and all pervasive in western culture!

well, as all things come in threes, let me add another series to this list.  and would you guess it is also by Adam Curtis?

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom? (Part 1)
http://video.google.com/url?docid=83725 … GrbVXDV4gw

Anyone can probably navigate to the other two parts if properly inspired and motivated!

I just have to think when i see things on mass manipulation and social controls, how far we have digressed from the true meaning of personal freedoms and liberated souls.    i mean, we really are living more like a large amoebic mass of living cells on the surface of the earth.  kind of gross like slime-mold or something where all the varied parts are  living to be just like the next cell. any aberrant  cells treated like cancer and are attacked and rejected by the mass.  how much could we Be if only each person, each soul, realized their own unique self-sovereignty?  how much more can we realize if we understand how that self is reflected in the Whole and vice versa?

well, i hope everyone has time to check this series out at some point and share with others.  these are all shared in bit torrent as well if you would like a better quality copy to burn on DVD! (it's the only way i can get others to watch some of these videos!)

peace,
pulsar

The Power of Nightmares is online as well. A good documentary which shows how the terrorism scare is nothing more than a fabrication used to control.

"Both [the Islamists and Neoconservatives] were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. And both had a very similar explanation for what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they created today'’s nightmare vision of a secret, organized evil that threatens the world. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful. " The Power of Nightmares, Baby It's Cold Outside.

http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares

I have the same problem. Unless I sit people in front of the TV and show them these documentaries, they can't be bothered to click on the links I send them. I guess it is harder to swallow than Heath Ledger and the Olson Twins.

8 (edited by titmouse_ 2008-01-28 17:49:47)

Re: Century of the Self

covertmetaphor wrote:

I have the same problem. Unless I sit people in front of the TV and show them these documentaries, they can't be bothered to click on the links I send them. I guess it is harder to swallow than Heath Ledger and the Olson Twins.

"You can lead a horse's ass to wonder, but you can't make 'em think"
~~carefulcarpenter


I have attempted to lead people to Noble Realms; from there it's up to them whether they will read and follow links. It is very disturbing when one's entire life is challenged by other paradigms. People invest so much of their emotional capital in mundane things--then an "a$$whole" comes along and they feel insecure and inferior.  They don't realize they are "strange isolated beings created so that Cold War era 'game theory'[designed by John Nash*] could work" [Stephan Lambert]

As google once said, "Titmouse is a songbird perched outside the barred window of our personal prisons attempting to free us from our self-imposed incarceration".  We see now via "Century of the Self" that we were manipulated into believing and living the "Prisoner's Dilemma".  Titmouse was rejected for looking under the curtain at a young age. I have simply wanted people to free themselves, but I didn't realize how comfortable they had become in their luxury.

wikipedia wrote:

Prisoner's Dilemma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_dilemma

Many points in this article may be difficult to understand without a background in the elementary concepts of game theory.

Will the two prisoners cooperate to minimize total loss of liberty, or will one of them, trusting the other to cooperate, betray him so as to go free?

In game theory, the prisoner's dilemma (sometimes abbreviated PD) is a type of non-zero-sum game in which two players may each "cooperate" with or "defect" (i.e., betray) the other player. In this game, as in all game theory, the only concern of each individual player ("prisoner") is maximizing his/her own payoff, without any concern for the other player's payoff. The unique equilibrium for this game is a Pareto-suboptimal solution—that is, rational choice leads the two players to both play defect even though each player's individual reward would be greater if they both played cooperate. In equilibrium, each prisoner chooses to defect even though both would be better off by cooperating, another reason the problem is known as a dilemma.
In the classic form of this game, cooperating is strictly dominated by defecting, so that the only possible equilibrium for the game is for all players to defect. In simpler terms, no matter what the other player does, one player will always gain a greater payoff by playing defect. Since in any situation playing defect is more beneficial than cooperating, all rational players will play defect, all things being equal.

In the iterated prisoner's dilemma the game is played repeatedly. Thus each player has an opportunity to "punish" the other player for previous non-cooperative play. Cooperation may then arise as an equilibrium outcome. The incentive to defect is overcome by the threat of punishment, leading to the possibility of a cooperative outcome. So if the game is infinitely repeated, cooperation may be a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium although both players defecting always remains an equilibrium and there are many other equilibrium outcomes.

* note: It was later discovered that John Nash suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia.

Fun fact: Great Tits are common in Europe

To know love is to know trust; to know oneself is to know truth
~~carefulcarpenter


1+1=1