Month: September 2018

Watched The Century of the Self – Part 3: “There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads; He Must Be Destroyed.” by Adam Curtis
Watching Century of the Self, first time I have heard of the Kent State shootings. Astonishing – the US state firing on an unarmed student protest. According to the documentary, it had a suffocating effect on the protest movement.
Watched The Century of the Self – Part 2: “The Engineering of Consent” by Adam Curtis
Edward Bernays, United Fruit and the CIA in Guatamala – using propaganda to fuel a coup of a democratic socialist leader on behalf of a corporation. Pretty warped stuff.
Mark Greif’s Against Exercise is a hoot. “The haste to live one’s mortal life diminishes. The temptation toward perpetual preservation grows. We preserve the living corpse in an optimal state, not so we may do something with it, but for its own good feelings of eternal fitness, confidence, and safety. We hoard our capital to earn interest, and subsist each day on crusts of bread. But no one will inherit our good health after we’ve gone. The hours of life maintenance vanish with the person.”
I’m enjoying Doughnut Economics so far. Kate Raworth suggests the new economy needs to be a mix of the market, the household, the state, and the commons. Rather than the current paradigm that suggests the market can handle everything.
Watched The Century of the Self – Part 1: “Happiness Machines” by Adam Curtis
Moving from a need-oriented to a desire-oriented consumerist society.  Thanks a lot, Edward Bernays.