Fear! Cheap Fear for Sale...!

This post by Madduck reminded me again of the BBC Documentary "The Power of Nightmares" which I immensely enjoyed. "The Power of Nightmares", by Adam Curtis, portrays the world as the now-familiar place in which the battle for belief is waged using terror. However, in an insightful (and ironic) twist, Adam contends that it is western politicians fanning the flames of this fear in their struggle to remain ideologically relevant. The whatever generation doesn't buy into the upbeat idealism of the past, but fear of a great external evil is an ideology which sells. Conversely, the islamic fundamentalists aren't trying to frighten the west, but rather other muslims to save them from the moral perversions of the west.

As with any political documentary, take it with a grain of salt... but it's really well done. It must be, imdb says so :-). Seriously though, this is an absolutely brilliant, must-see documentary for anyone remotely interested in politics. There's an interview with Adam Curtis on the BBC site, which states that they're trying to clear various copyright issues to be able to release it as a normal non-broadcast only movie. In the meantime, google video is your friend...