Disturbing Documentary: BBC's "The Power of Nightmares"

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This is a very fascinating, downright scary documentary about the origins of Islamic Fundamentalism and Neoconservatism. It looks at their common roots in the "failure of the liberal dream to build a better world." To say that this is disturbing is to understate things dramatically. It provides documentation that confirms what I've suspected for a while: that much of the current war on terror is really just an extension of failed threat- and fear-mongering based on failed fallacies of 30+ years ago.

To understand the import of this approach, based on FUD, lies, and a nasty mix of fearmonger and warmonger, one need only read a recent post on Schneier's blog, Security Perception: Fear vs Anger. People who are afraid are less optimistic, and thus less likely to advocate aggressive measures. They would seem to be more easily oppressed and placated, too. In contrast, angry people are far more aggressive, optimistic, and likely to take greater risks. Very interesting...

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I've just finished reading the Signet Classics version of George Orwell's eerie novel, 1984 (also see here). Hands-down, this is the most disturbing work that I've read in recent memory. What I found so disconcerting is that it was published... Read More

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This page contains a single entry by Ben Tomhave published on March 27, 2008 5:27 PM.

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Fiction Review: George Orwell's 1984 is the next entry in this blog.

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