4 ms·
I remember an Adam Curtis documentary called The Power of Nightmares, in it, there are examples of making people scared, threats and anxiety to achieve politica
by thinkingemote 2y ago
I remember an Adam Curtis documentary called The Power of Nightmares, in it, there are examples of making people scared, threats and anxiety to achieve political ends. Neoconservatives believed that making people scared about threats not only helps in actions against the perceived threat but helps increase social cohesion. They wanted people to come together in their worry, to form new social bonds shared by being scared about a common enemy.
The documentary gives the examples of Neocons's hyping up the threat about Islamic terrorism and Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. It's really rather good.
I'm always wary of earnest calls for people to be scared. Scared people are scary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares
- sillyfluke 2y agoIt's fine to be wary. It's dumb, naive, or reckless not to do the work and analyze whether or not the fear is warranted in a specific case. Adam Curtis did the work in a specific case and found the fear unwarranted for that specific case. Parading that example has no fucking relevance for this specific case except to say that someone always has an incentive to lie about something. The people abiding by the principle "strive for peace, prepare for war" are not "scary scared people" despite being very afraid of war on some level.
- penguin_booze 2y agoI keep coming back to The Century of the Self. I didn't know about The Power of Nightmares - must check it out.
- bluenomatterwho 2y agoI'd say the masterpiece of the Wolfowitz doctrine was Ukraine. The best mental picture I can paint is seeing the longing, looking-for-acceptance look on the face of the little old hippie lady that sold me my Patagonia marching in a pro-Ukraine rally. Watching the Democrats and liberal media press themselves into mobilization for Neocon theory was truly like appreciating a work of art. Big, bad, scary Russia. Nuland and her husband, right there, the high court of Neoconservatism!
- bluenomatterwho 2y ago[flagged]