We as Individuals Became ‘Ever More Powerless’ and ‘Unable to Challenge Anything’ in 2014
In "Charlie Brooker's 2014 Wipe," the British satirist and creator of the dystopian show "Black Mirror" takes a hard look at the news highlights of the past year and comes to the grim realization that we live in a time in which the powers that be are continually destabilizing what we understand as reality to further exert their control over the masses.In “Charlie Brooker’s 2014 Wipe,” the British satirist and creator of the dystopian show “Black Mirror” takes a hard look at the news highlights of the past year and comes to the grim realization that we live in a time in which the powers that be are continually destabilizing what we understand as reality to further exert their control over the masses.
Although much of it centers on world news, media and entertainment from a U.K. perspective, the nearly hourlong review of the year offers valuable insight into the “strange mood of our time.” The segment starting at 25:35, which includes a piece by documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis, is especially interesting with regard to its analysis of the Internet and the way information is presented to the public in order to keep us from the truth hidden behind the propaganda machine that much of mass media has become.
—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata
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"This Is Not Propaganda" author Peter Pomerantsev explores how authoritarian regimes and far-right movements have weaponized free speech.
In "Hypernormalisation," the British documentary filmmaker delves into the intricacies of a "strange time" in which "extraordinary events keep happening that undermine the stability of our world" while "those in control seem unable to deal and no one has any vision of a different or a better kind of future" .
On Wednesday the White House released a list of English-language documents found among the al-Qaida founder's belongings in 2011, after U.S. Navy SEALs killed him in a compound in Pakistan, to which he had been traced.
Sweden's foreign minister has done what few Western officials have been willing to: denounce Saudi Arabia for its appalling human rights record. Now, Sweden has put its money where her mouth is, but will it cave in to pressure from Arabs and big business?
If you can wangle access to the BBC’s iPlayer, a viewing of Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake” may improve your chances of making sense of the modern world, TV critic Sam Wollaston writes at The Guardian newspaper.
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