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I would perhaps say that Adam Curtis has a great knowledge of recent history, rather than understanding. His work portrays history as an unending sequence of co
by rmchugh 12y ago
I would perhaps say that Adam Curtis has a great knowledge of recent history, rather than understanding. His work portrays history as an unending sequence of conspiracies. While I greatly enjoy his work, I would in no way consider him an historian. More of a political artist than anything, in that his work relies primarily on implication, association and inspiration, rather than empirical evidence.
- calibraxis 12y agoTake Edward Bernays — "the father of (modern) public relations". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays) His book Propaganda starts with: "THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country." (http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html) So when Adam Curtis writes documentaries on people like him, he may sound to some like a conspiracy theorist, because that's how some of the profiled creeps themselves sound. (But of course, "conspiracy theorist" is often misused to throw muck at people who focus on structural analysis.)
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- bigbugbag 12y agomaybe because there is quite a number of conspiracies in recent history and it is important to know about those because the conspirators are still in position of power or their ways are still used today.