15 October 04

The Terror Myth

Here’s a documentary you’re not likely to see on American television in the near future. The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear argues that “the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion…a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media.” This is a three-part series being shown on BBC2 starting this Wednesday, and is written and produced by Adam Curtis, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker. The series traces two intellectual threads that start in 1949 with the the thinkings of the radical Islamist Sayyid Qutb and the American political philosopher Leo Strauss and shows how these run very much in parallel, both movements believing that liberalism is amoral. Saying that “in an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power” is something of a heretical message—I like it!

Posted by at 09:36 PM in Politics | Link |
  1. Can you get the BBC over there? I have high hopes for this programme. If it is as sensible as the trailers make it sound then the BBC may not have been totally gagged yet. Here’s hoping….

    — Coup de Vent    19. October 2004, 10:12    Link
  2. Hmm. My geographer brother has been very skeptical about the existence of “Al Qaeda” since day one. It does seem a little like what Voltaire said about God: if Al Qaeda didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent it. Using it as an excuse to ramp up “anti-terrorist” activity in places like Mindinao and Chechnya does seem highly suspect. I’m sure the documentary comes up with many other examples.

    — dave    19. October 2004, 12:02    Link

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