Documentary: Politics and the illusion of terror - BBC

[FRED]

Three part documentary by the BBC on the history of the development of the use of the illusion of terror to fulfill political aims.

Power of Nightmares: Part I (1 hr)

Power of Nightmares: Part II (1 hr)

Power of Nightmares: Part III (1 hr)

[PeterM]

Re: Documentary: Politics and the illusion of terror - BBC

I saw this one a year ago and kept the download on disk to show to those afraid of terrorism. It is one of those documentaries that may change you perception on world events and main stream news. I urge everybody to see at least part3.

In case you want to download them for off-line use, you can use this link
http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares

on the left you will find severable downloadable qualities.

More info on the documentary can also be found on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_nightmares

[metalman]

Re: Documentary: Politics and the illusion of terror - BBC

agreed. can't watch the reports re terrorism on cnn or fox without thinking of this series. but it also makes me worry that the guys in charge have come up with something better than totalitarianism. who needs censorship when you're running a political system where the truth doesn't matter?

[PeterM]

Re: Documentary: Politics and the illusion of terror - BBC

In case you are interested in some more recent 'Terrorism-AntiSpin' you may want look at http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/dickdestiny.html


As always, don't believe anything but get informed and form your own opinion.
You could start here http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2006...th-liquid.html
Use the links at the bottom of the blog to get to some other stories and you will get an idea about the crap that is fed to us daily.

Did you get scared about the 'liquid bombs' news last month? Then do some digging and evaluate the practicality and danger yourself. Ask your chemistry professor and he will explain that it is very unlikely that you can make the explosive that the media refers to on a plane; and even less unnoticed. The needed cooling, time for crystallization and removal of smelly and hazardous fumes from hours of evaporation require at least some basic lab facilities. Facilities I did not yet see on any of the planes I used.

If all those hyped-up cases were just April fools jokes I could laugh about it. But unfortunately these cases appear to steer the uninformed public towards a mental acceptance that the world is full with dangerous terrorists. Also the perceived threat convinces the public that they should support their governments to spend any amount of money, restrict liberties of their own citizens, start pre-emptive wars, etc., to ‘fight’ the terrorists.
Terrorists are dangerous delusional idiots that cause pain and suffering and they should be dealt with. But IMHO not in ways that will impose limitations on our free way of living. The terrorists don’t have an army to occupy us, they can’t impose their way of living on us.
Still we appear to allow our governments to do to us what the terrorists cannot accomplish, change our free way of life. Enter the world of constant surveillance, obligations to carry identification at all times, etc.

Any death by a terrorist act is one too much, but pls. keeps things in perspective. The chances of being killed by a terrorist are far less than motor accidents or murder. In the US yearly 43.000 persons die due to vehicle accidents and 16.000 due to murder.


On the lighter note. For those who want a quick laugh, read the following excerpt about the part on the trial of the alleged terrorists who were arrested for trying to obtain 'red mercury' …(a material that doesn’t exist)…
From the BBC:
The prosecutor, Mark Ellison, admitted the police had no idea if there even was such a thing as red mercury - supposedly the main ingredient for a "dirty bomb" which could have devastated London.
But he told the jury at the outset: "The Crown's position is that whether red mercury does or does not exist is irrelevant." :confused:
He warned the jury not to get "hung up" on whether red mercury actually existed at all.

Unfortunately I bet that the high profile front-page arrests and alerts are more baked in the memories of the public than under reported end-results of embarrassing investigations.


Just a small test …. How much prime time was spent in the media on the Anthrax scare and who was blamed? OK, now how much was mentioned about Anthrax in the main stream press over the last 3 years? Is the case solved? Or what has been found ????