By Cliff Montgomery – Aug. 8th, 2011
“Rupert Murdoch doesn’t like the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation]…and sometimes the BBC doesn’t seem to like Rupert Murdoch either,” top U.K. documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis declared in January, while offering an excellent short study of the neo-conservative media magnate.
“Following the principle that you should know your enemy,” Curtis continued on his blog, “the BBC has assiduously recorded the relentless rise of Rupert Murdoch and his assault on the old ‘decadent’ elites of Britain.”
“I thought it would be interesting to put up some of the high points,” continued Curtis.
“It is also a good way to examine how far his populist rhetoric is genuine,” stated Curtis, “and how far its is a smokescreen to disguise the interests of another elite.”
We at The American Spark will follow the example of Curtis, and “leave it to you to decide.”
For those not familiar with his work, Adam Curtis creates brilliant, incisive documentaries on Anglo-American society. He sometimes is referred to as ‘a more intellectual Michael Moore’.
A few of his most amazing works include:
- The Power of Nightmares, which compares U.S. neo-conservatives and Middle Eastern Jihadists, provocatively declaring that each group uses a constant manipulation of public fears to give it a “power and authority in a disillusioned age,” according to a BBC article
- The Century of the Self, which reveals how American relatives of ground-breaking psychologist Sigmund Freud talked Big Business into using Freudian psychology as a basis for its public relations–and as a means of controlling the country’s population
- The Mayfair Set, a revealing study of U.K. capitalists during the Thatcher years
- Pandora’s Box, which discusses the inherent dangers of political and technocratic rationality
- The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom
- The Living Dead, which discusses the ways in which history and memory are abused by politicians.
