Documentaries

Bill

The Century of the Self:

The Century of the Self is biased against capitalism, against individualism, and in favor of collectivism. Keeping this in mind, I found it interesting and worth watching. The overarching theme is that business and politicians have applied the theories of Sigmund Freud toward influencing the population.

Now, I think Freud was unscientific and misguided. Nevertheless, I can also see how techniques derived from his theories could still be effective. One can get the details correct even if one's model is wrong. Think epicycles versus ellipses.

I recommend watching the documentary for a dose of recent history while keeping the biases of the creators in mind.

Bill

HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis:

This is by the same person who made The Century of the Self, and similar warnings apply. I found this one interesting, too. The biggest surprise, assuming the filmmaker is being honest, is what we did to Gaddafi. I had known we had given him the shaft, but I had no idea just how big that shaft was.

Bill

Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh (1997) Full documentary by Adam Curtis

Mostly about the disaster caused when the HeLa cell line contaminated just about every other line of human cell cultures.