Adam Curtis - All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

[Ancient Otter]

New Adam Cutis series starting tonight May 23rd 2011 at 9 p.m. on BBC1. Can't wait!

[I, Cosh]

Saw a very odd ad for this last night. You can't beat a bit of Brautigan.

[Ancient Otter]

It was on BBC 2 - apologies everyone. 

[Hoagy]

Just watched a brilliant, brilliant real life horror story made in the shape of a documentary studying the growth of genetic thesis. "Machines, Without Loving Grace." It has a damning solid theory of the expansion of the understanding of the gene.

Fucking astounding bit of tv.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Saw that too, bloody great wee show so it was

[JOE SOAP]

Curtis is the master at taking seemingly disparate bits of info and amassing a huge dioramic jigsaw. It's also nice to see the arrogance of certain contradictory scientific ideas challenged, ideas which drive a tendency to leave out the idea that we're still people who live lives no matter how unimportant they seem to be in the light of scientific method and evolutionary theories. The extreme end of Dr. Price's life is indicative of how some of these great men take their scientific notions as 'Gospel'.

[Hoagy]

Saw that too, bloody great wee show so it was

Curtis is the master at taking seemingly disparate bits of info and amassing a huge jigsaw. It's also nice to see the arrogance of certain contradictory scientific ideas challenged, ideas which drive a tendency to leave out the idea that we're still people who live lives no matter how unimportant they seem to be in the light of scientific method and evolutionary theories. The extreme end of Dr. Price's life is indicative of how some of these great men take their scientific notions as 'Gospel'.

It was very well put together.

Did you see the previous two?

Were they just as incredible?

[JOE SOAP]

I've watched eveything the man has done since the 90's and while I think Century of the Self is still the best thing he's ever done this new series is still great, though I disagree with the conclusions he came to in the first part about why the global money crash happened, that it was the result of what was believed generally to be a 'free-market' when there was clearly no such thing and never was, it was certain powerful people's notions of the idea of 'free' against the actions of other powerful people.

The gist of all his programme's is how ideas are used by elites to manage the masses and how limiting  such actions become eventually corrupting individuals and society in a feedback loop.

[Hoagy]

I'd guess as an outsider looking in on the development (in this one) of such theories, its easiest to say that, if these genes are so fastidious in their design, they need to be tempered by morality and stabilised by degeneration(for want of a better word). But by glumpies! Is that what you call high concept?

[JOE SOAP]

I think the point is that none of it is the whole story and there's no one explanation for who we are and how we should live and the idée fixe is like a mental illness for some/the many who believe they have the answer. Curtis' films are personal theses in fragmentary telly-form rather than documentaries. That's why there's so much voice-over.

[House of Usher]

I enjoy his documentaries. Occasionally bits of his data and arguments are somewhat abstruse and it's not clear what they contribute to the argument. The second in this series, about the mechanical model of the ecosystem, took a long time to crystallize the point that whilst things in the biosphere are interlinked in webs of energy, matter and function, there is no system and it most certainly isn't in balance or self-repairing. If you were not paying close attention, or switched off halfway through, you might have thought that the programme was arguing that ecologists and hippies have got it all completely wrong, rather than that economically powerful elites used nature as a fallacious systems model to persuade people to accept their lot in life and let corporate interests get on with exploiting the world's resources for their own ends and dividing the dissenting voices by promoting the moral authority of markets over governments.

[JOE SOAP]

The political system -if there's any- that most resembles nature is anarchy which is ironically the conclusion that narratively ends Atlas Shrugged but contradictorally -as usual- Ayn Rand was herself a libertarian who supported minarchist centralised government, the dope.

Curtis always recovers by the end...after a few tangents.

[Hoagy]

Hrmm, sounds a good one.

[Peter Wolf]

thanks for the pointer as i will have to watch these.Also i wasnt sure who Adam Curtis is until i realised that its the same guy who was responsible for the Politics Of Fear which was very good from what i recall although i wouldnt mind watching it again to see if there are any flaws in his arguments that i may not have picked up on when i last watched it.

The Politics Of Fear is available in its entirity on Youtube if anyone is interested.

I've watched eveything the man has done since the 90's and while I think Century of the Self is still the best thing he's ever done this new series is still great, though I disagree with the conclusions he came to in the first part about why the global money crash happened, that it was the result of what was believed generally to be a 'free-market' when there was clearly no such thing and never was, it was certain powerful people's notions of the idea of 'free' against the actions of other powerful people.

I disagree with that assessment as well as its factually untrue and deceptive when the financial collapse was preplanned and not the result of a series of unfortunate events or a free market which diverts the blame away from those responsible.

Its disappointing that Adam Curtis doesnt address this topic.

Not sure about Ayn Rand who never recognised that there was a core elite who control and manipulate everything while selling her philosophy of Objectivism/Randism.Calling for minimal centralised govt instead of the problem she identified as big govt while ignoring the aformentioned core elite who control govts.

A totally free society  

Ugly stupid woman but she came across as a sandwich short of a picnic anyway with her rolling eyes while being interviewed.

Advocating a society free of being dictated to by govts while either being ignorant of or deliberately ignoring the power elite and creating a cult of self interest and amorality.

Alan Greenspan was recruited by the FEDRES partly because of his support of Randism and the advocation of the markets regulating themselves knowing that when it all failed it would be blamed on free markets while being employed by the FEDRES which is the antithesis of a free market.Alan Greenspan blamed the financial crash on Randism and that he was wrong about lack of regulation etc etc while knowing all along that it was caused by the FEDRES and that regulation was the answer and that it would be the FEDRES that would be doing the regulating.A liar and a fraud who never realised the hypocrisy of promoting Randism and a free market that was all a sham while working for criminal private central bankers.

Greenspan blames Objectivism/Randism for the purposes of plausable deniability.

Liars and frauds.

[Emperor]

I thought it worth splitting off to another thread:

Some background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of_Loving_Grace_(television_documentary_series)