The Power of Nightmares, Part 1: Baby It's Cold Outside

Dr.Docs' Take

The Power of Nightmares is Curtis at his sharpest, arguing that politicians stopped promising us dreams and started selling us protection from nightmares instead. Part one traces two groups of ideologues, American neoconservatives and radical Islamists, who both needed a terrifying enemy to give life meaning. I do not accept every leap, but the central idea rewired how I watch a security briefing. Essential, unsettling, and more relevant every single year.

The first part of Adam Curtis's The Power of Nightmares traces how politicians shifted from promising dreams to promising protection from fear. It follows two parallel movements, the American neoconservatives and the radical Islamists, showing how both grew from a reaction against modern liberal society. This episode lays out their origins and the shared belief that fear could be used to unite and control. It is a provocative reframing of the politics of the modern age. Free to watch in HD on Dr Documentary.

Courtesy of Adam Curtis / BBC on YouTube. Watch on YouTube ↗

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