9:07 Adam Curtis is now highlighting for all the Bioshock players who didn't get it exactly what the game was satirising. For other good summaries of Her Bonkersness, see Action Philosophers (sample here - http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/744775.html )
9:08 Randians against Burke, eh? Ooh a bit of Clint Mansell - good one Adam!
9:10 This reminds me a bit of some work on folk-psychology I did once. Boiled version: just because everyone agrees that the same thing is happening, doesn't mean that it actually is. If you pay attention only to the agreed-upon phenomena you can ignore the deeper structure that pre-determines the options for action.
9:12 Interestingly this (sickly marrying of neoliberalism with 'freedom') is exactly the kind of bullshit the Graun's tech weekly podcast often slavishly repeats.
9:15 Hoo - Atlas Shrugged! Any Sadlynauts will be familiar with the US right's response to the financial crisis a couple of years ago - threatening to 'go Galt'. Strangely they never did. Wonder why?
9:19 Bit disingenuous to say they were asking for a 'totally free society' since a central tenet of Objectivism was contempt for the majority of people. I know this isn't an original point, but it's probably worth repeating.
9:22 I was never convinced that those who professed belief in the 'new economy' guff weren't being somewhat disingenuous to be honest. I always kind of assumed that those who pushed it were the same ones who push every boom - the ones who are convinced they'll come out ahead.
9:28 Ooh it's the bit off the trailer.
9:31 From Rand to Monica Lewinsky - bit of a stretch?
9:35 The problem I'm having is that this is a very familiar story. I'm sure it's an essential par, but I've known this since I were a teenager...
9:37 She's* right, of course. Luckily, since no one ever reads this blog I'm in the privileged position of creating a commodity no one wants to buy.
9:40 The face on that IMF negotiatior...urgh...
9:42 IMF riots ... that takes me back...
9:45 Interesting that this time round the bankers don't seem to be even pretending that they have a solution. They've learned not to trade in optimism, at least.
9:51 Whod've thought that Objectivism was thinly-disguised, vainglorious hubris, eh?
9:54 Nice tying in to Power of Nightmares and Century of the Self.
9:56 I don't know, Adam. How many people really believed their own hype about permanent boom? It would require an astonishing level of naivety on the part of financial elites...
10:00 Well, I'm fully satisfied. Lovely bit of Curtis, was that. What is the theme over the end credits?**
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UPDATE
*Just to be clear, 'she' in this case refers to Carmen Hermosillo, not Ayn Rand.
** It's Stereo Total - Aua
*** Title fixt
**** Intriguingly, Virgin catch up lists AWOBMOLG under 'Drama and Soaps', rather than documentaries. How odd.
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