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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Century of the Self

  
 
No star here laces
12:09 / 08.04.02
Anybody been watching this? I think it's very well made, especially the way they've got people like Robert Reich and Derek Draper to give their lowdown on the events they were personally involved with.

Issues from Sunday's show:

- Despite returning to power in the 90s the 'left' parties of the UK and USA failed to create a new formulation to rival the individualistic consumerism/market democracy meme that Thatcher and Reagan brought to prominence. What kind of new formulation could possibly unseat this way of thinking?

- The 'Freudian view' (programmer's term) of humans as irrational, emotional beings is the foundation of said market democracy view and also the main driver of western economies. Do we believe in this view, or is it possible for politics to be a rational endeavour?

- The focus-grouping of politics has fucked up democracy in the UK and USA for different reasons. In the UK because parties no longer stand for recognisable, logical ideals and in the USA, to a lesser extent, because it is now far easier for politicians to construct an electable persona for themselves. Is this resolvable? How can UK politics be reconfigured to give the voters more choice and more power?

The point being - this (to me) is the epitomy of what the BBC does well. It's massive in scope, thought-provoking and contains deep analysis, but is also hugely accessible to the relatively uneducated. Plus it's great sunday viewing.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
14:07 / 08.04.02
Yeah, missed the last one, but really enjoyed the first couple, the first one, talking about Freud's great-nephew (?) his 'promotion' of Freud and his methodology in the states.

Bit pushed for time, but agree wiht most of the above, particularly the use of 'characters' from the events in question to provide the contemporary view.

Back later.
 
 
captain piss
00:52 / 13.04.02
This was the best thing I've seen on tv in ages- well, on the educational front.
I had never really grasped the extent to which the battles being played out in the psychology arena have had such a great bearing on the wider cultural picture. Interesting as well the way in which things got very personal and nasty between Freud's daughter and Reich.

The program was saying that a subtle cultural change has occurred in the west in the last 50 years, nurtured by the advertising industry, towards people being inherently more selfish and self-absorbed, because this makes them ideal consumers. Which seemed an interesting point to me (speaking as someone who's very self-absorbed!).

But yes- the point about the focus group approach to political strategy used by the major parties being bankrupt and going nowhere.
I guess governments have to take matters by the balls and try to implement things that aren't just based on the constantly fluctuating and contradictory whims of voters but the big question is how to do so within the current system.
 
  
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