00:00 - Intro 00:35 - Adam talking about project ‘’It Felt Like a Kiss’’ 3:45 - Adam Curtis about cooperation with Punchdrunk 6:07 - About BBC's involvement with ‘’It Felt Like a Kiss’’ 7:16 - About Internet and audience sensibility 8:54 - About documentary making career of Adam Curits / about comedy and humor 12:20 - Idea of the web / natural order 15:40 - Idea of progress and why progress stopped 17:43 - Why world wants to stay as it is 19:19 - About computer/internet utopians and power 25:05 - Jane McGonigal and world without oil game / hippies and world change
This guy is THE most interesting. thought provoking person I've ever heard. Every single documentary he makes is riveting and despite his claims to be "reworking the past" invariably has real fresh way of looking at the subject matter without spinning off into absurdity. I hate the BBC for what its become, but have maintained it is still an invaluable institution because it has brought people like Adam Curtis to the fore who otherwise may never have been given the time of day anywhere else. For those few programmes that people like him creates, though buried in a mountain of output that spans anywhere from inane dross to outright criminal propaganda by design the BBC licence fee is worth keeping (just). He is right up there with the all time great BBC programme makers. Right now the BBC needs people like him more than he needs the BBC, that's the precarious position the BBC has put itself in.
No kidding. I've been involved with selling on Ebay since 1997. So I used to prowl thrift stores quite a bit and the artifacts ... it's like the remnants of a lost civilization. Electric carving knives? Really? A whole civilization of people who worried about such things as how hard to work at carving the weekend roast instead of struggling working 3 jobs and whether they can afford mac and cheese? There were SO many knick-knacks, of the kind that only made even a little sense if they owned their houses and actually stayed in the same house for decades. It was all very strange to me, as I'd never lived in the same place for more than a handful of years, always moving on for financial/survival reasons.
It is very interesting to hear from Mr. Crutis. I have seen some of his documentaries and his explanation is almost more thought provoking than the films he produces.
Power is belief - a decentralised network is possible when the individuals comprising it move beyond belief. This network is emerging separately from the top-down pyramidal structure of power. The chaos we see today in the world is the cognitive dissonance from this happening - because to a person caught in power (subjected to it) these happenings are entirely out of their realm of conception.
Very interesting interview. To be honest I think the mainstream I western culture has inured itself to its enforcement of its own (often disastrous from the point of view of other cultures) economic terms through the infantilisation of its own culture. Its like a child who kills takes pleasure in throwing a brick into something and then going back to its own games. Also, as this model gets adopted in other parts of the world, the same thing is happening. But I think someone in Eastern Europe say or other poorer countries, do have to grow up quick. Just to survive.
***** The trouble with liberalisation in this country (the UK and possibly USA also) is that essentially the parents of the generations back adopted the policy of 'Daddy and mummy want a drink, so let the little ones play on as long as we are not disturbed'. And this attitude has been carried forward.There was no sensible approach beyond Roy Jenkins really when it came to the 'permissive society'. Since then liberalism has become 'neo' liberalism, pioneered under Thatcher and Regan, which essentially says 'We do what we want, that's our right...screw the rest of you.' No matter what the economic, social or environmental costs. Our way is better because it is. The trouble with rampant individualism is that, if left unshackled with only mere material things lionised above concepts of duty, citizenship and inclusivity (an attitude also rather childish...in its over emphasis on the material 'I've got this and you haven't' mentality) you have a society that has no root and only provides alienation to those who are left dispossessed (which is most of us) and only have a certain yardstick to mark ourselves by. I don't agree with a lot of Marx, but he was bang on about the alienation effect in capitalist societies. Definitely.
00:00 - Intro
00:35 - Adam talking about project ‘’It Felt Like a Kiss’’
3:45 - Adam Curtis about cooperation with Punchdrunk
6:07 - About BBC's involvement with ‘’It Felt Like a Kiss’’
7:16 - About Internet and audience sensibility
8:54 - About documentary making career of Adam Curits / about comedy and humor
12:20 - Idea of the web / natural order
15:40 - Idea of progress and why progress stopped
17:43 - Why world wants to stay as it is
19:19 - About computer/internet utopians and power
25:05 - Jane McGonigal and world without oil game / hippies and world change
Thank you Stefana! I've added this to the main description.
This guy is THE most interesting. thought provoking person I've ever heard. Every single documentary he makes is riveting and despite his claims to be "reworking the past" invariably has real fresh way of looking at the subject matter without spinning off into absurdity.
I hate the BBC for what its become, but have maintained it is still an invaluable institution because it has brought people like Adam Curtis to the fore who otherwise may never have been given the time of day anywhere else. For those few programmes that people like him creates, though buried in a mountain of output that spans anywhere from inane dross to outright criminal propaganda by design the BBC licence fee is worth keeping (just).
He is right up there with the all time great BBC programme makers. Right now the BBC needs people like him more than he needs the BBC, that's the precarious position the BBC has put itself in.
‘We are playing in the ruins of a time when our parents were probably happiest’ god damn if that ain’t the truth
No kidding. I've been involved with selling on Ebay since 1997. So I used to prowl thrift stores quite a bit and the artifacts ... it's like the remnants of a lost civilization. Electric carving knives? Really? A whole civilization of people who worried about such things as how hard to work at carving the weekend roast instead of struggling working 3 jobs and whether they can afford mac and cheese? There were SO many knick-knacks, of the kind that only made even a little sense if they owned their houses and actually stayed in the same house for decades. It was all very strange to me, as I'd never lived in the same place for more than a handful of years, always moving on for financial/survival reasons.
'mazing !! grate content hitting very hard now on 2023.
It is very interesting to hear from Mr. Crutis. I have seen some of his documentaries and his explanation is almost more thought provoking than the films he produces.
At least one major crisis later and we're still playing
His point about gaming is spot on. 80's kitch or 60's nuclear paranoia dominated the market, and still do to some extent.
Power is belief - a decentralised network is possible when the individuals comprising it move beyond belief. This network is emerging separately from the top-down pyramidal structure of power. The chaos we see today in the world is the cognitive dissonance from this happening - because to a person caught in power (subjected to it) these happenings are entirely out of their realm of conception.
8:51
Consumerism if one of the least creative drugs the human species has ever found itself addicted to.
The only thing you can't buy is life so no one wants to spend it.
Very interesting interview. To be honest I think the mainstream I western culture has inured itself to its enforcement of its own (often disastrous from the point of view of other cultures) economic terms through the infantilisation of its own culture. Its like a child who kills takes pleasure in throwing a brick into something and then going back to its own games. Also, as this model gets adopted in other parts of the world, the same thing is happening. But I think someone in Eastern Europe say or other poorer countries, do have to grow up quick. Just to survive.
***** The trouble with liberalisation in this country (the UK and possibly USA also) is that essentially the parents of the generations back adopted the policy of 'Daddy and mummy want a drink, so let the little ones play on as long as we are not disturbed'. And this attitude has been carried forward.There was no sensible approach beyond Roy Jenkins really when it came to the 'permissive society'. Since then liberalism has become 'neo' liberalism, pioneered under Thatcher and Regan, which essentially says 'We do what we want, that's our right...screw the rest of you.' No matter what the economic, social or environmental costs. Our way is better because it is. The trouble with rampant individualism is that, if left unshackled with only mere material things lionised above concepts of duty, citizenship and inclusivity (an attitude also rather childish...in its over emphasis on the material 'I've got this and you haven't' mentality) you have a society that has no root and only provides alienation to those who are left dispossessed (which is most of us) and only have a certain yardstick to mark ourselves by. I don't agree with a lot of Marx, but he was bang on about the alienation effect in capitalist societies. Definitely.
That's "oh dearism"!