The Century of The Self: Freudians vs The People

[R_P_A_S]

"The Freudians had hoped to create a world in which people were reduced to expressing their feelings and identities through mass produce objects resulting in a 'one dimensional man' conformist and repressed."
-Herbert Marcuse

Unfortunately, they go what they hoped for.

The award winning documentary by Adam Curtis, The Century of The Self pretty much opened my eyes. Just like Marxism did nearly three years ago. This amazing documentary has answer many questions for me and has solidified even greater my belief in socialism and the need for the capitalist system to cease.

Perhaps many of you have seen the 3 hour documentary, But for many of us in the States, this is a rare film. And I can see why. Even though it cleared up many questions for me, It also generated more.

OK, so society has been brainwashed. We all know this and even average non socially conscious people probably are aware of this. But I feel that this fact is quickly dismissed as nothing but a conspiracy theory. After all no one in this day in age is going to believe that we are being brainwashed with "radio waves" from our Computers, Cell Phones, and Television sets or any other sci-fi method that we associate "brainwashing" with. And since this presumption has long been associated with science fiction it does not attract second thought nor questioning. But it should!

Let's face it, the ruling classes that flourished from the Industrial Revolution not only had a leg up on the means of production and politics, but most importantly on propaganda techniques. No matter how often the social elite point their fingers at the political left and cry that we use propaganda to brainwash people we all know those statements are filled with hypocrisy as they are guilty of their very own accusations. In fact theirs brainwashing methods have proven to be more effective, as they're so eloquently known as public relations, advertising and commercials to this very day!

These methods have been used on us for nearly 90 years, According to Adam Curtis a scum bag by the name of Edward Bernays started it all! Known as the father of Public Relations, he believed that humans were irrational and unpredictable beings who needed to be manipulated and controlled by the elite. He felt this manipulation was an essential part of democracy. The same practices used by the Nazis. All hailing from his uncle Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalyst theories. The film does an incredible job taking us back to the early days of Sigmund Freud, his daughter Anna Freud, the rise of "Freudanism" to the tactics used on the people in the 1920's till today! It puts many things in perspective, not just about capitalism but about our ideology and man in general.

If you haven't seen this, I highly recommended! and If you have seen it lets have some discussion about it and ways we can have such works reach the masses.

[Decolonize The Left]

You can find the film here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151); it is part 1 of 4, and the other parts are available under the "related videos" section to the right of the page.

I have not seen it yet, but thought a link would be helpful.

- August

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

This should be in Science, or Liteature and Films.

[Wanted Man]

I haven't seen this one, but I have seen "The Trap", which is also very good.

I don't think Curtis is a marxist or makes analyses as such. But judging by The Trap, his work is still quite important, even if I don't agree with everything. In The Trap, he ends with the distinction between "positive" and "negative" liberty. In conclusion, he says that we may very well need to rediscover the "positive" liberty that Isaiah Berlin criticised. I think this comes very close to openly calling for resistance, or even revolution, something which you don't hear in the mainstream media very often.

Curtis' style works very well, too. He has just the right voice, and he extensively uses archival footage and all kinds of different music. I sometimes find it difficult to keep up with documentaries, but not with his.

If you want to watch his documentaries, you can download them with BitTorrent too: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3817303/ADAM_CURTIS_-_Complete_Documentaries_%5BDVD-Rom_iso%5D_%5BREPAIRED%5D

He also made a pretty funny (and true) parody of his own documentary style: The Rise and Fall of the TV Journalist (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9FaIyc4vpU).

More on Edward Bernays:



Bernay's most extreme political propaganda activities were said to be conducted on behalf of the multinational corporation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporation) United Fruit Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company) (today's Chiquita Brands International) and the U.S. government to facilitate the successful overthrow (see Operation PBSUCCESS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBSUCCESS)) of the democratically elected president of Guatemala (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala), Jacobo Arbenz Guzman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Arbenz_Guzman). Bernays' propaganda (documented in the BBC documentary, The Century of the Self (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self)), branding Arbenz as communist, was published in major U.S. media. According to a book review by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton of Larry Tye's biography, "The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR",
"the term 'banana republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic)' actually originated in reference to United Fruit's domination of corrupt governments in Guatemala and other Central American countries. The company brutally exploited virtual slave labor in order to produce cheap bananas for the lucrative U.S. market." Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda) would later denounce the dominance of foreign-owned banana producers in the politics of several Latin American countries in a poem titled "La United Fruit Co."
(wikipedia)


I didn't know that. I really should watch The Century of the Self soon.

[R_P_A_S]

This should be in Science, or Liteature and Films.

You know I seriously think I have a posting deficiency, I always post threads under the wrong category. Sorry guys! Someone move it please.

[bobroberts]

This is a great documentary and I hope everyone at least tries to watch it.

[R_P_A_S]

Yes, I don't think Curtis is not a Marxist per say, But this is not about Marxism. It's about history and the men at the helm, these people are responsible for how our society thinks and how our culture has evolved.

I think is important to take note of this, very important! In reference to Marx's call for revolutionary change and any other revolutionary out there, we need to understand some facts.

The arguments made between capitalism's exploitation and the peoples empowerment through socialism based on class struggle are still relevant to this day! Without getting too deep into theory and ideology I feel is safe to say that historical materialism still holds up strong on it's study of economics, history and society. But unlike capitalism our study and approach is not appealing, it has fail to evolve.

Why don't we ever hear capitalist referring to them selves as "Freudians" or arguing between what's "the best way to interpret Alex Smith?"
Or breaking away from orthodox Bernayism to form Neo-Bernaysm (in references to Edward Bernay) I mean it sounds fucking retarded! We sound fucking retarded because WE do this shit!!! wether is with Marx, Engles, Castro, Che, Mao, Stalin. People are turing names into brands!
Yes Brands! whatever appeals to you more and best describes your unique thoughts and views! How is that not the same as buying Nike over Adidas or Shopping at Best Buy over Sears??? Oh right! But you are for the liberation for your common man! your working class comrades? Well guess what you are so caught up in theory, Ideology and arguing with other "revolutionaries" wether is here on internet or at house meetings that you aren't even relevant to the working class and their struggles. Money and capitalism on the other hand is!

It really makes me wonder about Humans in general, specially on the political left, For the most part we are staunch critics of religion and how money dictates our lives yet we act like (i.e) Leninism is divine word.

Che talked about an ideal communist human, "The New Man".
Well there's a new man! And it's not the same from 90, and 50 years ago. You can't approach people about working class liberation, revolution or just basic changes to better their situation like you would of in 1917 and in 1968. The monster engineered by Edward Bernays and continued by the Public Relations field has been telling people what they want to hear successfully for nearly a century and we have not!

Look people I'm not trying to insult anyone here, don't take anything personal. I'm simply pointing out what I believe are contradictions and faults in the way we think and conduct our beliefs. I knew the task ahead is an immense one. I have no fucking idea how we will each or all get there, Or if we ever will. I do know however that I will spend my entire life educating my self and others, and when the calls come in I'll stand by your side against injustice. I trust you all will too!

[R_P_A_S]

An other point I would like to make, I have been reading "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston, and on there he talks about how,

"The Second industrial revolution began in the middle of the 20th century as service began to supplant the making of things. Today less than a sixth of jobs are in manufacturing, while services provides roughly the same share of jobs that farming did in 1810."

This is in relation to The United States only. The key industries like farming, mining and construction are being overtaken by a new wave of industry, like service, information technology, design and development, key and prosperous industries in the U.S.A. These are not your average working class people! These are yuppies, entrepreneurs, and ambitious graduates with college degrees convinced that they are "half way there towards the American Dream" .

Why would they ever want to join our cause? The "blue collard", the working class is shrinking in a sense that their jobs, their industry is being shipped over to even more repressive regimes like China and India.

I can't stress enough that in order to evolve with the times, we need to be aware of the changes and the new playing field.

[R_P_A_S]

I'm a bit disappointed that nobody's making any arguments about this issue. I feel that I brought up a good topic. This is now! :(

[R_P_A_S]

lame...

[R_P_A_S]

Bump.

[R_P_A_S]

Bump!

[x359594]

...The key industries like farming, mining and construction are being overtaken by a new wave of industry, like service, information technology, design and development, key and prosperous industries in the U.S.A. These are not your average working class people! These are yuppies, entrepreneurs, and ambitious graduates with college degrees convinced that they are "half way there towards the American Dream" .

Why would they ever want to join our cause? The "blue collard", the working class is shrinking in a sense that their jobs, their industry is being shipped over to even more repressive regimes like China and India.

I can't stress enough that in order to evolve with the times, we need to be aware of the changes and the new playing field.

I agree with this analysis up to a point, but the current economic crisis may well reverse these trends. As the US dollar declines against other currencies those cheap manufactured goods from abroad become more expensive, and if the dollar loses all value against foriegn currencies the dying manufacturing sector of the US economy will of necessity have to be revived. Some predict that the dollar will only have 40% of its value by next Christmas. It's entirely possible that the "consumer" era of economics is over, that suburbia will lose its value, that the automobile will be a diminishing presence in daily life, that the major systems we've come to rely on will founder, and that the transition between where we are now and where we are going is apt to be tumultuous.

Returning to Adam Curtis and Century of the Self, I thought it excellent. I just watched The Power of Nightmares his 2004 documentary. The thesis of the 3-part film is that the neo-conservative movement and the Islamic fundamentalist movement exist in a symbiotic relationship, and he draws connections between Leo Strauss and Sayed Qutb, founding ideologues of the neo-con and fundamentalist movements respectively. I highly recommend this.

I haven't seen The Trap.

[turquino]

I haven't seen this one, but I have seen "The Trap", which is also very good.

I don't think Curtis is a marxist or makes analyses as such. But judging by The Trap, his work is still quite important, even if I don't agree with everything. In The Trap, he ends with the distinction between "positive" and "negative" liberty. In conclusion, he says that we may very well need to rediscover the "positive" liberty that Isaiah Berlin criticised. I think this comes very close to openly calling for resistance, or even revolution, something which you don't hear in the mainstream media very often.I agree, I don't think he's a Marxist, but the message points in the direction of radical social transformation. I think many on the left, even those who believe they're socialists, are trapped in the liberal democratic paradigm of 'free' choice and individual liberty. Most of the time this paradigm goes uncontested, and when something does arise to contest it, it is treated as a dangerous and self-evidently wrong idea. There was a reason why I had to read 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World in high school. The message they wanted imprinted in youth was 'don't bother acting on the world to change it for the better, it's futile and will end in disaster.'

[x359594]

...There was a reason why I had to read 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World in high school. The message they wanted imprinted in youth was 'don't bother acting on the world to change it for the better, it's futile and will end in disaster.'

Historical context alters perception. I also read those books in high school, but the era was the 1960s in the US. I took the message in exactly the opposite way, "You better do something or we'll end up living in one sort of dystopia or other." I went on to read Huxley's anti-war pieces and Brave New World Revisited and his alternative society novel Island. From Orwell I read Homage to Catalonia which pointed me in the direction of socialism and anarchism.

[R_P_A_S]

Hey guys. Thanks for commenting on my thread, I feel this subject is way more relevant than the other 200 hundred or so! We should discuss this more in depth.