The Trap

Last Sunday saw the start of a 3 part documentary series called 'The Trap'. It is by Adam Curtis, the guy who brought us the award-winning 'The Power of Nightmares - The Rise of the Politics of Fear.'

The Trap is very much in the same style - wonderful archive footage and superbly scripted voiceover. This time his thesis is that the 'freedom' that Western democracy has brought us is actually a much narrower thing than we are led to believe. Rather, as a result of Game Theory that arose during the Cold War, we are encouraged to see that being highly suspicious of one another is our best strategy.

The first part was one of the best pieces of television I've ever seen. Dumbing down this isn't. Catch it on repeat if you can, and book in Sunday night at 9pm on BBC2 to get the next installment.

Technorati: Adam Curtis | BBC | Television | The Trap

Comments

[Michael Crook]

Hey there,

Thanks for the promo. Any idea where someone on the other side of the Atlantic (in Vancouver, Canada) might be able to get his hands on this series eventually?

It looks very interesting.

[Kester]

I'm pretty sure The Power of Nightmares came out on a limited cinema release over that side of the pond, but I may be wrong...

Let me know if you don't get hold of it... I'm recording it ;-)

[Dana Ames]

Thoroughly scary.
Dana

[Club Soda]

here's the intro to pt.2 of THE TRAP:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D0e5XrtLsv0

[Kava Zana]

The first two episodes are on youtube (in chunks):

Episode One begins here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEB05_3-p0

Episode Two begins here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srPp0-Ybv8Q

[Winston Smith]

lots of adam curtis fodder at:

http://www.myspace.com/ws29

[Kester]

All the full episodes are also out there are bit-torrents.
Try mininova.org