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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Power of Nightmares

16:46 / 20.10.04

The Power Of Nightmares, starting tonight at 9pm looks promising.

For those who've heard nothing about it, it's a three-part documentary that began as an investigation of Leo Strauss and the rise of neoconservatism. But his interest in the myths and the myth-making, and the the parallels between the Straussians and the radical Islamists, has resulted in what looks like an interesting take of the The War Against Terror, the politics of fear and the 'al-Qaida illusion'.
His view that our anxiety about terrorism is hysterically out of proportion, and cynically perpetuated by our leaders, might be an interesting counter-point to all the Dirty Bomb! Head for the hills! documentaries.
More here.

21:13 / 20.10.04

I think it was a very healthy and thoughtful antidote to the usual "we're a' doomed!" programmes we usually get, but I'm a little concerned that the makers:
Had an awful lot of access to the right-wing cranks
and
Tried to rehabilitate Kissinger. He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy.

22:19 / 20.10.04

It was certainly interesting but did set itself up for accusations of being liberal scaremongering about the dangers of neo-conservative scaremongering.

I don't think Kissenger, who was portrayed as an arch-pragmatist, was being rehabilitated so much as held up as an antithesis to the quasi-idealogues of neo-conservatism and Islamic extremism.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

17:32 / 21.10.04

Do you think the program maker did enough to avoid the usual rightwing attack of "You said 'neoconservative'. That really means 'Jew'. You're a naaaaaasty anti-Semite!"?

And yeah, I don't think he was sticking up for Kissinger, more that on this occasion Kissinger was on the opposite to the NeoCons.

19:37 / 21.10.04

This is just up my street. I knew relatively little about the philosophical and cultural origins of the neoconservative movement, how sudden was the political impact of the Christian Right and fuck all about Sayyid Qutb. It served as a good primer for me, and I think led the viewer pretty skillfully through how the cold war mentality related to terrorism, and the parallels with the current War On Terror.

I liked the way Kissinger's influence was portrayed, and it just reminded me that the difference between hero and villian is largely down to what you're frightened of. And, if anything, it blunted the Jew/NeoCon association. Unless I misunderstand Flowers' concern. I thought it was pretty balanced insofar as a real effort was made to explain how quite genuine concerns about how the individual liberalism of the 50s and 60s might be a cause of societal decay, and how different cultures might respond to this.

10:32 / 22.10.04

Excellent! I'd read about Sayyid Qutb in Tariq Ali's "The Clash of Fundamentalisms" and Karen Armstrong's "The Battle For God." The former is a bit heated and the latter dry, but I recomment both highly. I hope the documentary's available on DVD.

Qutb was basically just another disgruntled political scribbler until persecution gave him a purpose and martyrdom gave him a following.

Leo Strauss (excellent analysis by Danny Postel), a refugee from Nazi Germany, was a nastier piece of work.

His idea, adapted from Plato and Nietzsche, that a government must "nobly" lie to citizens and make sure the lies are believed (for they deserve nothing better) is pretty much a recipe for the sort of place he came from. It suggests Strauss was homesick and wanted the Germany of his youth, but with Edward Bernays handling the PR. Instead we're headed for the Nazi planet in old-skool Star Trek.

Strauss even lied about the "noble" part. Plato's "noble lie" was a truth clothed in fiction; myths (or jokes or urban legends) we make to help us explain ourselves ourselves.

Altered Plato and watered down Nietzche make for a political philosophy aimed right at guys who got their asses kicked a lot at school. It's Objectivism on brown acid. (Great Psychic TV CD cover: WERE YOU EVER BULLIED AT SCHOOL? DO YOU WANT REVENGE?)

I don't think Curtis rehabilitated Kissinger. Kissinger's and Strauss's visions are/were equally bleak. Both excuse(d) dirty dealing (Pinochet, UNITA, Musharraf) in the name of American primacy (Strauss) or some measure of world peace (Kissinger). Neither vision inspires (will you have that Christendom-Umma war hot or cold?) or bears close scrutiny (better lock up the internet).

The "enemy," global Islam, is kind of like a puddle of cornstarch. Leave it alone and it runs in all directions; slap it and it stings your hand.