Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself.

As I mentioned before, I recently saw an excellent BBC documentary called 'The Power of Nightmares’. The thought provoking thesis at the core of this three part documentary is that the threat of Al Qaeda has been greatly exaggerated, and somewhat fabricated for political purposes.

You’re thinking ‘Liberal Propaganda’, and that’s initially what I feared, but the reputation of the writer and producer, Adam Curtis is excellent and his rigorous and meticulous intellectual analysis are quite obvious. In other words, Curtis is no Michael Moore. Over the past dozen years, via similarly ambitious documentary series such as Pandora's Box, The Mayfair Set and The Century of the Self, Curtis has established himself as perhaps the most acclaimed maker of serious television programmes in Britain.

His film makes the case that "in a post-ideological age, politicians increasingly use fear, rather than vision, to bolster their positions.". The documentary does not deny the existence of terrorism but it puts it into perspective and shows that it is not the super-coordinated international terrorist network with sleeper cells on every continent everybody, especially the media, assumes it is. In the end, the terrorists are a number of extremely dangerous but often disparate small groups of extremists

Adam Curtis also draws an interesting parallel between the Neo-con philosophy inspired by Leo Strauss and that of the Fundamentalist Islamists – a parallel based on their common hatred for the same enemy : liberalism and individualism. Both groups believe that moral relativism and individuality threatens to break down the unity of their respective societies, hence the need for a common enemy which unifies people. Curtis also explains quite convincingly the alliance between the religious right in the US and the secular neo-cons by pointing out the Leo Strauss’ belief that religion is a noble lie - a necessary myth to ensure a stable society and social order.

When I heard about this documentary, I feared a Michael Moore-like- conspiracy theory but it was not. It was quite factual and gave a lot of historical background, with the a tone that combines traditional BBC authority with something more modern and sceptical. The world is thus not divided into absolute good and evil but it draws a much more complex picture. For example, instead of esaily blaming 'evil' politicians, it shows that they have themselves been formatted into taking the ‘precautionary principle’ (which originated in the Green Movement) to an extreme and as a result politicians assume the worst.

A good illustration was also the dirty Bomb which according to some experts would actually pose little danger.

“The American department of energy, says Dr Theodore Rockwell, an authority on radiation, has simulated a dirty bomb explosion, "and they calculated that the most exposed individual would get a fairly high dose [of radiation], not life-threatening." And even this minor threat is open to question. The test assumed that no one fled the explosion for one year. Apparently, it is the panic resulting from the fear that would have a real impact.

But who is ready to listen to such a non-dramatic message? Indeed, drama sells better.

To conclude, Curtis says that both the fundamentalists and the neo-cons have a similar interest in sustaining the "fantasy" of the war on terror. Whether the thesis in this film fits your political outlook or not, the documentary is definitely worth watching and discussing as it debunks many of the myths we all live in. In the end, it also has the power to give us intellectual reasons to not be so afraid of the world we live in. In other words, it is a great remedy to the fear that tempts us all for 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.".

PS: If you want more details on the program we just talked about, here’s a good link.