BBC Documentary About Psychology & Politics

[InfoMinister]

This thing is long but very cool. Youtube has a 100 meg restriction on filesizes so whoever put it up had to split it into 20 different videos. It deals with how advertisers and politicians have used psychology to manipulate the masses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L0NMxMzGgM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_jMZ2Gc-LE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpRzK2bIijE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUKAjYUfUb8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOtDE5Xx9IQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSoH0bNLS8o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgi7endpRB4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUlNxAWwnpc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5px-snfhpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3uNPHdCGaA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uz3VEoq6IDA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FF8bhYvdmtg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4QtB2fKj2Ss
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JRVvbZPCbGc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9VOe2TQFI-Q

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6KJ_K_anXdw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-9gnUR212FE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QkhR4Cl2hYc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LyYZwZ5yaaI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gXfyfdUluRY

[1932]

1. Can I get it on DVD? What's the title?

[InfoMinister]

2. Century of the Self

It's called Century of the Self and I don't know if it's on DVD. It's by the same guy who did the Power of Nightmares documentary. Another really good one.

[ladjf]

14. Yes. There is a global epidemic of narcissism and the epicenter

is in the Republic Party of the U.S.

The Earth's human population seems divided into two groups.

(1) Those whose philosophical values take in consideration the interrelationships of all things, understanding that the human race is only an integral component of the system. These individuals
posses a basic mindset of humility, awe and respect for the system.

or

(2) Those who believe that the human race is the reason for the system and that everything that exists, does so for the benefit of certain chosen individuals. They see no problem in plundering ever thing and everyone for their own benefit. These individuals maintain a mindset of intense arrogance, self-centerdness, greed, violence and total disrespect of ever thing other than themselves.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. The Century of the Self - links to bigger files

I'm googling now to see if it's up elsewhere in bigger chunks...

part 1 here - http://www.archive.org/details/AdaCurtisCenturyoftheSel...

part 2 here - http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtisCenturyoftheSe...

part 3 here - http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtisCenturyoftheSe...

part 4 here - http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtisCenturyoftheSe...

[InfoMinister]

17. Everyone Use Those Instead

Thanks for posting those.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432232/

[InfoMinister]

5. Betty Crocker and Cigarette Promotions

Just wanted to ask about these two. It says in the documentary that Freud's relative got models to march down the street during a parade and light up cigarettes. They then got the news out about it and said that they were "torches of freedom". This produced an irrational perception of freedom and liberation in women when they smoked a cigarette.

Another example they used was Betty Crocker cake mixes which weren't selling well. They discovered that women back then felt guilty about not doing a lot of work to make the cake so they wouldn't buy the stuff. So the psychologists said to add an instruction to add an egg to add more work. After they added the egg instruction the cake mix started to sell.

Has anyone ever heard about those two? Seems like they should be teaching this stuff in college marketing classes.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

6. Those are very interesting examples . . . n/t

[mdmc]

7. as a pol with a psy ba, I am interested in this.

bookmark/r

[ladjf]

8. Hitler was so impressed with the mind control techniques

being used by American advertising gurus that the required his propagandists to study them. After the war, some of those same people were brought to the U.S., first to work in the SS (I believe that was the name of the intelligence org. that preceded the CIA) and after that, some went right to work for the Republican Party writing propaganda for them.

[KittyWampus]

11. After considering this, I IMPLORE DU'ers to rethink their reaction

to lawsuits aimed at Junk Food Manufacturers.

They aren't just putting a product out there and saying "try me".

And they know a lot more about the ill effects their products induce.

[ladjf]

13. Most definitely.

The marketers are practiced professionals working at very subtle levels of mind control. The average
consumer is no match for them. The Republican administration uses the exact same strategies, but, all the more powerful as they sell such products as "SECURITY", "FAMILY VALUES","ANTI GAY MARRIAGE"
and "TAX BREAKS". It's like lambs being led to slaughter. This "slaughter" is adversely effecting the entire planet and it's inhabitants.

If the human race can recover from the current orgy of bad thinking and manage to survive for another 100 years, they might become enlightened enough to shape philosophies that will enhance the quality of life for all. Were that to happen, the history of the "horror period" would be studied as a model of what not to do.

[KittyWampus]

18. Also, Psychology is involved in more then just post production...

it involved very often DURING production.

[InfoMinister]

9. Wikipedia Article Gives A Decent Overview

Here's a wiki article that gives some details on the documentary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_Of_The_Self

[Armstead]

10. This is interesting from that -- Ties That Bind

From the Wikipedia entry above:

In Episode 3 the main character is Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. He was part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in USA and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the "Democracity" during the 1939 New York World's Fair.

----

And then hit Matthew Freud's biography link and lo and behold, this little tidbit....

He married secondly, as her second husband, August 2001, Elisabeth Murdoch, second daughter of media-magnate Rupert Murdoch, and his only daughter by his second wife Anna Murdoch. They have had issue together.....Matthew Freud and his present wife Elisabeth Murdoch are considered one of the United Kingdom's power couples; he for his family associations and his own profession in public relations, and she for her family associations and her work as a businesswoman.

[InfoMinister]

12. About Bernays

Here's a quote from him:

"“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized…”"

[lovuian]

15. I have to say this was a GREAT documentary...

though Freud made us aware of the unconcious and how it can be manipulated and yet I really believe if you manipulate the unconcious for greedy reasons ...it will have ramifications...

The problem is you have irrational men manipulating the crowds...

now I agree thats really scary stuff...

[killbotfactory]

16. This is a GREAT documentary

I saw it a few months ago.

There is a Frontline episode that ties in with this, called The Persuaders, which you can watch at their website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuader... /

Watch both! It's important to realize how far these companies go.

[lovuian]

19. kick

[lovuian]

20. kick

[lovuian]

21. kick

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

22. FYI - it's by Adam Curtis who also did "The Power Of Nightmares"

(which is also available at archive.org)

[killbotfactory]

23. ...

http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares

[killbotfactory]

24. kick

[mdmc]

25. i cant get the files to work

[killbotfactory]

26. Did you try the archive.org links?

http://www.archive.org/details/AdaCurtisCenturyoftheSel...
http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtisCenturyoftheSe...
http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtisCenturyoftheSe...
http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtisCenturyoftheSe...

Downloading from them can take a long time, so you might want to use a download manager like wackget: http://www.millweed.com/

[mdmc]

27. no I got the youtube links to work

thanks though...

[MissMarple]

28. Wow. Lately I have been wondering who could organize a national campaign

to "sell" our democratic American values. I've long thought that the GOP and the wacko unconservative right have done a selling scam on the American people. Family values, tax cuts generate financial prosperity, it's your money and you know how best to spend it, the war on terra, welfare queens, activist judges, liberal agenda, homosexual agenda, and on and on....

Too many Americans can't see the truth, it could bite them in the butt and they would just revert to a radical right mantra.

[mdmc]

29. kick

[DrDebug]

30. Awesome documentary. Very much recommended

Just watched the first hour from archive.org and it's excellent material.