Can't Get You Out of My Head - Adam Curtis's latest archival footage series

[Caleb Evenson]

When Mark Walberg raised the topic of flower children and their rarity in the Powell Memo thread, I remembered Adam Curtis's "Hypernormalization", as parts cover various social movement participants, eventually overwhelmed and exhausted by their causes, who then turned inward believing social change had to come from what all could control - the self. In my memory the most prominent example the video suggests is Jane Fonda turning to fitness. The video also raises figures who didn't recede inward, but instead turned their efforts toward the internet. Given it's nearly three hours long and my last watch was at least a year ago, my memory might lack what happened to others.

Moving on...today he released his new six part series "Can't Get You Out of My Head". The household and I watched the first two parts. By the end of the second, the topic of "those who wanted to change the world" turning inward returns, this time with more (IIR the former C) emphasis on how psychology aided established economics and finance to manage modern power structures.

"Hypernormalization" was the first Curtis video I saw. It was most useful to me as a springboard for finding other information, something I hope both the above can be for those curious about where flower children and such may have gone. That reminds me, his series "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" covers at least one hippie commune that ultimately failed. I recall it was the one reputed to be the first rural commune, Drop City, but would have to watch again to be sure.

I highly recommend his filmography to anyone who hasn't seen any. I have watched all but two of his titles from his '89 film forward, and would appreciate them even without the music or his narration, provided captions giving names, dates, and places were attached to the images, because he uses the BBC's archives to make his films, meaning he has access to obscure and oooollld footage.

Lastly, I'd like to echo Bob Ross's saying many just got older and are harder to recognize. My retired clergy neighbor sells antiques, writes a column for the local paper, and organizes Satyagraha Institute. I had known him for over a year before he invited me to attend the first SI gathering, and only at that gathering did I finally gain any clue he has a deep history of activism. He told me stories of breaking into Ellsworth Air Force Base (he and crew informed the base they would do so and when) to protest nuclear weapons multiple times during the Cold War when he still preached. Fun fact: he said one of those times, law enforcement broke a protester's arm so bad his bone was sticking out, but because it happened on Sunday, when no health care personnel were at the jail, that person had to wait another day for any care - yikes! Maybe someday I'll get more stories out of him.

[ides1056]

This is a bit of drift, but if you haven't read Robert Graves' book, Watch the North Wind Rise, I can recommend it.

I worked on a biodynamic farm in Northern CA 1976-9. There were a few communes in Covelo at the time, The Land, and None of the Above. They did not fail, really, but people grew up and changed, like ripples in a pond. If I had known where the world would go in my lifetime...

[false_aesthetic]

Started to watch HyperNormalization this morning. Going to have to break it into chunks b/c of work but so far I'm really interested.

[davids]

I'm going to begin my admitting I don't have the patience to watch these videos, based more than a little bit on their strange targets and the sense I get that he thinks there's something extra-special about his generation.

There's nothing new about people "turning inward" and focusing on their own moral behavior as the place to start changing the world. I think there may be one or two world religions that make the case.

And Caleb? Welcome to VSalon. We're glad to have you here.

[Caleb Evenson]

davids, thank you for the welcome! I still encourage you to test your patience regarding Curtis's work, though.

Having watched many hours of it, I have yet to get any sense he considers any generation more or less special than another. Also, sorry if I came off as believing I held some unique insight, but nothing in his work suggests focusing inward to create social change is new. After reflecting all weekend, what I remembered and/or more clearly realized is I raised that issue in his videos for the reason I believe he raised examples in his videos: they are examples of depoliticization (also a reason I posted the Powell Memo). That's one reason "Hypernormalization" stood out to me so much. What I mean is that I'm still in my early 30s and concerned that despite concluding (before graduating high school) that I distrusted both the Democratic and Republican parties enough to not vote (I have many times by now, though), and only loosely following politically related issues through most my adult life, I've still paid more attention than most peers I've ever encountered, and now many are bewildered even more than me after jumping in as reaction to 2016 (some retired folks have even admitted as much), ripe for any propaganda to have its way with them.

So I hope you don't mind me promoting at least that particular film a bit more. The show touches on so many more topics than I mentioned, from banking to arts to terrorism to social media and blah blah blah, but IMO the central thread is: leaders lacking solutions, media and technology promoting and maintaining mythical senses of reality, and the general populace mostly responding in wholly ineffective, siloed ways. That's some basic thought, but the show intrigues with specific examples, so if you haven't heard of it, please consider the Aladdin computer system (and here) that manages 7% of the world's finances. And I'll add the show would likely have never intrigued me if not for the abundant misinformation in the last decade, as in...who knows how many computer systems might fund such things without much of anybody knowing?