The Power of Nightmares Volume 2 Part 1 of 6

[djdan151]

wow at how this was made in what the 80's 90's and nobody even knows about it because certain people don't want us to know i feel really liberated watching these which in a way is sad because no doubt this is only the tip of the iceburg

[bhangman]

Probably helped to wake some of the 99% up.

[RATAPWNZU]

2:40 "boos!! chu chu!! durka durka durka durka durka durka durka durka durka durka durka durka durka!!!

durka durka durka durka! durka durka ! choom!!! durka durka durka durka durka durka!!!"

kid, you are just making the racism twards your people worse in a really cute way.

[lmos26]

BEAUTIFUL A major network FINALLY puts it all together and tell the truth for a change is a good step indeed.Those of us that have a nose for bullshit and have watched this happen our entire lives as big media playd along ensuring that the less perceptive remain ignorant and oblivious is almost unbearably frustrating.

Its no surprise that like the Holocaust. we can thank religion for making this all possible. because of this monster all wil continue 2b born with millions of instant enemies

[ThizelleWashignton]

"He gave me the Stinger missiles and a billion dollars."

[MzDemeanor821]

Why don't the Brits makes documentaries on their own sorded past which is a hell of a lot worse than America could ever be.

[FourZoas]

@MzDemeanor821 Well I suppose there's any number of reasons. The first is that 'sorded' isn't a word so we wouldn't know how to start. The second is that we can safely leave it to Hollywood to demonise us at every opportunity. The third is that it would have no bearing on the current political position we find ourselves in and would therefore be irrelevant.

[WilliamGruff]

@MzDemeanor821

'sorded' is correctly spelled sordid, and the English / British (I've no idea what a 'Brit' is) past is far more illustrious than America's will ever be. England created the modern world, and the United States. Not bad for a country little more than four hundred miles long and three hundred miles wide at its widest.

[YouuuuuuTosserrrr]

@MzDemeanor821 Odd statement; Britain never killed 4 million Vietnamese, or 200000 Japanese, not did we blindly blunder from one foreign affairs crisis of our own making to the next.

Do try and validate your assertions before consigning them to the public forum, old boy.

[martianflash]

When I watch these kinds of videos and start losing hope in humanity, I remind myself of Dr. Carl Sagan's The Pale Blue Dot. Who do we think we are really?!? In this vast creation, we are just a tiny part. It is our deeds and actions in life that can make a difference.. not how much power we had over our fellow human beings and other creations.

[mkdelta69]

It's not something that the politicians decided to run with.......the axis of evil between Bernays/CIA/and the State Department...........creates the illusion.......then uses the illusion to justify even more violence......................­....

Expose the real Axis Of Evil

[chh5555]

Is Michael Palin the narrator? Great documentary, thank you BBC. I am surprised that it could be made. Really happy to hear Eno's music being used also.

[SlimeTron5000]

@chh5555 Adam Curtis (Britain once was a great empire, too).

[soundsgoldbergen]

What a total farce the last 20 years of politics have been. Everyone has to watch this. We, the people who actually live on this planet need to work out how we are going to forget the past, including all the mistakes and bad decisions highlighted in this documentary, and move on into some brighter age.

Or maybe we need an alien attack to unite us all against inter-gallactic nightmares!

[mihir1310]

4:14 Freudian slip ?

[YouuuuuuTosserrrr]

@mihir1310 Mmmhmm, I saw it too :)

[MsAqualion]

“The faculty of self-deception, essential requisite for anyone wanting to guide others” Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

[sepiasilence]

@MsAqualion thanks for sharing this

[thefancydanhimself]

What is the name of the commentator of this film?

I'd like to read some more about him....

[sinwow33]

Brilliant - Raegan devoting the space launch to the Taliban.

Strange how they went from great freedom fighters to the biggest terrorist threat. Wake up Americans and realise that your country actually support dictators and terrorism as long as there is money to be made. You are still supporting Indonesia who are responsible for mass genocide in East Timor, where they have killed 1/3 of the population.

[MrJohndoakes]

At 6:40 or so they use the theme from John Carpenter's "The Thing"....kick-ass factor of this film shot up 40%!

[aggressorwolfen]

What an incredibly courageous program for the BBC to produce. It is a sad statement that here in America, we have to depend on the British to show us the truth of our own folly.

[dokholiday86]

@aggressorwolfen watch "1932 , a true american history" and see how much the british oligarchy helped us and the rest of the world. its here on youtube a great doc. you watch that youll find out how and y and whos doing all this that is talked about on this doc came about

[WilliamGruff]

@aggressorwolfen: Be wary of regarding what you learn from the BBC as truth. In the UK the BBC is widely regarded as heavily politically biased and morally bankrupt.

[TheGlassbooks]

@WilliamGruff That isn't true at all. The BBC is well known for its excellent documentaries which are always well researched. Are you saying this is all crap? Certanley doesn't appear so.

[WilliamGruff]

@TheGlassbooks : No I'm not saying that. I'm simply advising those who may not know the BBC's contemporary output not to assume that everything they put out is without bias. Thirty to forty years ago almost everything the corporation produced was of this standard or higher but that is not the case today. Most of its output now is minding rotting crap and much of what isn't is heavily biased.

[stoneskunky]

@aggressorwolfen UK, US, and Israel are the basically the same thing. This is a pretty good documentary, but its still propaganda. The CIA calls it "co-intel pro" basically telling you some truth, but keeping certain things censored from the regular public.

[stefminus]

5:50 - correct, richard. neocons are not conservative in the slightest. they're ultra-nationalist statists, and economically they're a gang of drunken fascists.

[christo930]

I am so glad these lunatics are out of power!

I hate Obama, I am a conservative (not a neo-con) and these were a huge danger to the entire world. We are very lucky that the soviet union didn't attack us because of their meddling.

[LordMalice6d9]

Neo-conservatism and modern Liberalism are both cut from the same cloth, the only difference is their commentary, but their goes are the same.

They both want government to control every aspect of everyones lives in their own way.

[christo930]

You are very right. Just look at what the Bush administration did and the Obama administration is doing. It's like we are in Bush's 3rd term. They all owe allegiance to the same people, the big corporations and media that back them and make their election possible. Big corp/media can't lose because they back both sides.

[Freshhhhh1982]

@LordMalice6d9 Are they fuck and if you think that you dont understand this documentary.

[lilcha85]

are you kidding? neocons play both sides and you better believe obama is one.

[christo930]

The funny thing is, anyone who has principles and stands by them is labeled labeled fringe or crazy or some other disparaging label.

[dlowell]

I think Curtis (the director) might be referring to transnational terrorism as an "illusion" only in the sense that its threat to Western civilization is an illusion, created by neo-conservatives to seize power. This is exactly what realist philosopher Hans Morgenthau was warning us about when he criticized the "demonological approach" to international politics. "Communism" wasn't a threat to the U.S., the strategic power of the Soviet Union was.

[irishdubfoundation]

@dlowell 100% spot on. in 2004 2000 people from global terrorism. thats out of 7 billion people. 70 of these were from the US. yet they plough 169 billion per annum into anti terrorism. it is a farce. there are of course muslims who do wish to harm the western world but we are talking .01% of all muslims. the speading of "democracy" for political and economical allignment was the very foundation of straussian philosophy.

[younghorsey]

He is not saying terrorism isn't a major problem in Pakistan and Afghanistan; simply that the threat is magnified out of all proportion in the west. What we need to be concentrating on is the massive inequality in wealth both within western nations and beyond. My enemy isn't the muslim guy who lives next door to me. My enemies are the rich and their lobbyists who control our governments. Wake up.

[TheBwaap]

@younghorsey

well, if 911 was real like they tell us, the terrorism would be unimaginable.

i mean it would blow up in youre face all the time when you heard about it.

what we have is a war, not exploding terrorists.

[Nayr747]

@younghorsey Not to be too cynical, but it won't happen. This system will inevitably collapse and a new one just like it will be built, and on and on. There is a fundamental flaw in our human nature (selfishness) that, until changed, will always result in gross inequality.

[niermith]

@Nayr747 human babies cooperate and help other babies for the other's benefit instead of their own (this was in a national geographic documentary or something). No human is born evil nor selfish. Selfishness is a product of the worship of individualism and money in our current society. Any "evil" flaw in our human nature is just another myth to sustain the use of power and weapons to "fight and eliminate evil".

[niermith]

@Nayr747 human babies cooperate and help other babies for the other's benefit instead of their own (this was in a national geographic documentary or something). No human is born evil nor selfish. Selfishness is a product of the worship of individualism and money in our current society. Any "evil" flaw in our human nature is just another myth to sustain the use of power and weapons to "fight and eliminate evil".

[EltonJThe]

@younghorsey Alright, if you want to fight iniquity, you join the Mormon Church and live the Law of Consecration. Keep what you need and give your excess in Fast Offerings to help the poor.

[Adnowwwwn]

Yeah this documentary is retarded. Islamists don't kill people because they are "non believers". Anyone that believes that nonsense should be shot repeatedly. They fight because the West occupies their lands, and gives Israel money to massacre Palestinians and make illegal settlements.

[perfecto25]

the very real presence and murderous history of Islamic political and theological movements.

if you go by what this documentary states, Islamism is nothing but a spectre created by western politicians, those nefarious 'neo cons' (sounds dark and evil, doesnt it?), and Al Qaeda and the historical expansionist and conquest-based nature of Islam is completely ignored. This is a very huge omission to make.

[perfecto25]

interesting but very flawed documentary.

Terrorism is an "illusion" only to those who have the extravagance of safety and time, nor the exposure to real terrorism.

Pakistanis are feeling this 'illusion' every day this week, with schools being blown, mass amounts of people killed up by their 'co-religionists'

Israelis have been suffering with this 'illusion' for over 60 years now. But they are thriving in the face of Islamic murder. This documentary is so flawed primarily because it discounts

[Liorte1973]

The bit where Richard Perle talks about "cosy relationships with dictators" make me laugh! If this were true, why does America have such a 'cosy' relationship with Saudi Arabia? Come to think about it wasn't Noriega once an ally of Reagans govt. (till he turned of course, then he became a dictator).

[robertwc82]

its 2009, isnt it about time this "al quada" activate these so called sleeper cells they told us were ready to attack at any moment?

[Frackal]

Just because politicians have *abused* the issue of terrorism, DOESN'T mean you can conclude that there is no / little threat. That's a logical fallacy too... all you can conclude from the above is the politicians have abused the idea of terrorism and that you need to find other sources of information about what is true. I.e., just because someone exaggerates the threat of saturated fats, doesn't mean you can conclude there IS no threat from saturated fats.

[robertwc82]

the threat of terrorism is a miniscule one, even according to the mainstream news. do you have any idea how many people are dying from car accidents? the threat was always small. i beleive terrorists have always been around but there is no global conspiracy amongst the terrorists. back in the cold war they were saying all the terrorists were part of a soviet conspiracy. even if their was a terrorist attack today killing 5000 people. the chances of it being you or me are minute

[Frackal]

The "even if there was a terrorist attack killing 5,000 people, the chance of it being you or I is minute" is a common refrain; but it doesn't take into account nearly enough the full impact of such an attack. Look no further than 9/11... planes grounded, D.C. shut down, two towers destroyed; Manhattan in chaos; stock markets plummet, economic recession. And how about if the attack is worse; biological or nuclear? It is nowhere near as simple or benign as you imply, and this is a mistake.

[robertwc82]

what if? what if both my parents were 6 foot tall, i would have been taller. what if the is a meteor bombardment from space? what about natural forest fires? disease? famine? what if you are in a traffic accident? what about earthquakes, tornadoes or lava flows? its a dangerous world my freind nothing you or i or any politician (scoff) can do about it.

now build a bridge and get over it

[Frackal]

Maybe we are speaking about two different things. You seem to be largely addressing how WORRIED one should be about a problem; while I am attempting to state simply the degree to which there IS a problem (and one can choose to what degree they wish to be concerned about it)

[robertwc82]

you seem to think terrorism is a new thing since 9/11 it isnt and it has nothing to do with them hating us for being free and prosperous, they are pissed off because they live in third world countries that are being screwed over by our governments and corporations. other terrorists are just power hungry but they usually just attack their fellow country men. you do realise the only reason that the news media and politicians make such a hype about terrorism is to manipulate you?............

[robertwc82]

....cont... 9/22 was a blessing for the politicians and news media. i dont think the government plotted it buyt they plan to benefit from it all the same. you should watch some youtube videos about congo, and the bannana republic, haiti (not sure on spelling), 2001 argentina collapse, the international monatary fund, the world bank, the world trade organization, the list goes on but cant think of any more atm.

P.S. dont underestimate the danger of meteor bombardment, it is a very real threat

[theotherbeave]

but what about charlie wilson??? that guy REALLY did help to give attention, money, and weapons to the struggle in Afghanistan.

[vivairaqi]

What about Bergnesci, is `nt he the one who create the Arab mujahideen in Afghanistan

[skaleewag]

calling them "paranoid" (i.e. unaware) is just naieve (i.e. unaware)

[shariqmushir]

Bloody Paranoid Bastards, that's what they really are!

[makinglovetotheday]

cool!

[krock8705]

Adam Curtis, now here's a a guy who should have a position in academia. Not the Wolfowitzs, Kristols, and Richard Pipes of the world. Talk about ass-backwards...............

[rizkibalki]

this really open m eyes, thanks a lot for the post dude!!

[endertrask]

fuckin neocons. theyr going to make us bankrupt