Adam Curtis' Films

[UPDATE: the links below don't work anymore, sorry...]

At first I did not want to post about these films in this blog, because I thought of them as not relevant to Tokyo and Japan. But it didn't take me long to realize that the methods mentioned in Adam Curtis' documentaries have most probably found good usage here... Even just to keep the links to the videos, here are the documentaries I refer to:

"The Trap"
About the trap politicians fall, when they try using science to make people's life better.
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3

"The Century of the Self"
About how politicians have used Freudian psychoanalysis to control the masses.
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4

"The Mayfair Set"
About how politicians have used psychoanalysis to control the masses.
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4

and the "Power of Nightmares", for which I will only link to episode 1. It's about how fear is used in politics.

I have left the "Pandora's box" series as last, even though it is the oldest.

Great documentaries!
Well, they will not replace books, but what I like the most about them is, they don't offer any solutions. Just give an overview of the methods, the theories they were based on, how and by whom they were applied, why they succeeded, and why they failed.

If I want to be pessimistic I would say:
these methods have worked in the past, they could work again.
If I want to be optimistic I would say:
these methods have failed in the past, they will not be used again.