Monday, January 11, 2010

Watched - Documentaries.

New World Order: What Do You Believe? - less about conspiracy theories and more about the people who invest in them.


Rethink Afghanistan


Stossel - Stupid in America - [on education.]
Pt 1/4

Power of Nightmares - watched this before, but the parallel rise of neoconservatism and radical Islam is pretty fascinating. You can find the whole thing online at The Internet Archive and on YouTube.
[A fan made trailer.]

The War on Kids - probably the most depressing documentary I watched. This and Stossel's Stupid in America fairly effectively indicts the American educational system. Which I've been inclined to think is true since I read some of John Taylor Gatto's work years ago.


RIP: A Remix Manifesto - [this is the future] - about copyright and remix culture.

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom? - by Adam Curtis, the same director of The Power of Nightmares [above.] Unlike the other though, I was unsatisfied by this. Interesting stuff - the game theory and psychiatry stuff in particular - but ultimately I didn't think it hung together. Lacked a cohesive, intelligible argument and made leaps on logic and assumptions that didn't seem accurate.

Witch Hunt - thoroughly depressing. About the Kern County child abuse cases in the 80s. Part and parcel of the daycare sex abuse scandal hysteria that I remember from my youth. 36 convictions, sentenced to hundreds of years... eventually 34 of 36 overturned. And the 2 remaining resulted in people dying in jail before they could be exonerated. Cops and prosecutors and the system are never to be trusted. Period.

American Swing - this was ridiculously entertaining/funny/fascinating. - "The Seventies were sexy and sleazy. At the epicenter of it all was Plato's Retreat, the controversial, first-ever swingers club. In New York's conservative Upper West Side, Plato's embraced adventurous couples who came to dance, to swim, and... to swap. It was the start of a revolution." - A real slice of American history. Totally worth watching/recommended.

Orwell Rolls in His Grave - thoroughly instructive primer on the media, politics and corporations.

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