Can't Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World - Adam Curtis - 2021

★★★★★-Holy shit. A masterpiece six-part BBC documentary series from Adam Curtis about how our contemporary existence, which emphasizes individualism over collectivism, is completely shit, totally unfulfilling, and was designed as a way for the powerful elite to keep citizens in control. “All human beings live in a made-up dream world of stories, which give them the illusion that they are in control,” he says. “But really, there’s something else inside them that they will never contact.” Goes through all of the intricacies of how it got this way. I think this is supposed to be a kind of call to wake-the-fuck-up, but doesn't exactly offer a way out of the mess, not that it really needs to. The documentary is more impartial observation.

It really goes deep, discussing things like the fall of the British Empire, American imperialism, China's political crisis in the wake of the Great Leap Forward, and the resurgence of Russian nationalism. It goes through all this and more whilst telling individual stories that came out of those systems. 

All this has led the perpetual creation of conspiracy theories and grasping at dangerous national myths. This while also coming to a sobering realization in the failure of technology to emancipate society envisioned by techno-utopians. The result was a surge in populism in the West, culminating in Brexit and Trump, as people looked to radically alternative visions for the future, allowing for those in power to push beyond ethical boundaries that should have served as breaking points. Like I said, holy shit. 

Curtis first blipped on my radar in college when I stumbled upon his BBC documentary series Pandora's Box: A Fable From the Age of Science which aired in 1993. It deals with the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism. Also in six parts, each episode deals with a theme. They are: Communism in the Soviet Union, systems analysis and game theory during the Cold War, economy of the United Kingdom during the 1970s, the insecticide DDT, Kwame Nkrumah's leadership in Ghana in the 1950s, and the history of nuclear power. It blew my mind. 

At some point in the last year I heard an interview with Chuck Klosterman where he talked about Pandora's Box and Adam Curtis, focusing on this new documentary and how heavy it was. That shit is my brand, so I'd watch until my brain hurt, turn it off, and start up again the next day from where I left off. It took me forever to watch it. But holy shit, did I love it. As a guy who fancies himself a media theorist, I'm not sure if it is for everyone, but it is definitely my jam. 

One of the things I enjoyed most was the lesson of the oft-forgotten historical figure whose influence triggered ripples that continue into the present. Individuals like Michael X, Afeni Shakur and her son Tupac (who took on the persona of a character to create change only to live as a cartoon), Arthur Sackler, Jiang Qing (Mao Zedong's wife), Murray Gell-Mann, and others are explored to provide some context behind the turmoil that engulfs the world at present. 

It also details the struggles faced by those marginalized by society. Some examples. The story of a woman seeking a sex change in the 1970s that is forced to undergo demeaning psychological evaluation. The reality of the Ethiopian famine which led to Live Aid which is remembered as a kick ass concert but was really a scandal that throws us into the complexities of humanitarian intervention that resulted in the exploitation of the narrative for personal gain. 

Yeah, this mesmerizing series rocked me. The main point that I walked away with is that humans inhabit a simplified dream world that defies rationality. In an era of individualism, rather than attempting to alter this dream world, governments fight for its preservation. The allure of appealing to reason and effecting change on a grand scale is rendered obsolete as we are content with the dream, like in Brave New World. This controlling our collective rage (done on a global scale) is a means to consolidate power and eliminate political adversaries. The disheartening truth is that all endeavors to radically transform the world lead to profound pessimism with the responsibility lying on the individual, rather than society as a whole. As individuals turn inward, the management of this attractive yet pessimistically curated dream world becomes a hybrid amalgamation of psychology, economics, and finance. The dream world thrives as through its meticulous cultivation by the ruling class.

This is something I think about constantly as I recycle, eat a vegan diet, and just basically try and live simply. It's all just a drop in the bucket, my actions. It shouldn't be on us to change the world. Sure, we probably all do our part, some of us anyhow. But it should really be on the ruling classes to get the real problems figured out. But why do that when they can just distract us with bullshit while preserving the status quo. Yeah, if I were teaching a class, this would absolutely be on my syllabus. I've got like 12 pages of notes, but nothing I really say about it is going to do it justice. 

You can watch it for free on YouTube here. It will blow your mind. Plus, the soundtrack is incredible.