Wednesday, June 22, 2011

If you've seen one too many Adam Curtis collage-u-mentaries what follows is f***ing genius...

Adam Curtis - highly rated by Charlton Brooker, which should be a bit of a clue
(PS are you still Googling your own name 'Charlie' you f***ing loser?)


Prologue:


ERROL MORRIS: There are those that believe that [the Gulf of Tonkin incident was] part of a conspiracy to escalate the Vietnam War. Here’s a question: are they right? And, in an even more general sense, is history primarily a history of conspiracy? Or is it just a series of blunders, one after the other? Confusions, self-deceptions, idiocies of one kind or another?

ADAM CURTIS: It’s the latter. Where people do set out to have conspiracies, they don’t ever end up like they’re supposed to. History is a series of unintended consequences resulting from confused actions, some of which are committed by people who may think they’re taking part in a conspiracy, but it never works out the way they intended.


And now for the f***ing genius part:


The Loving Trap of Pandora's Nightmares



12 comments:

Charles Lleyton-Orient said...

Ha ha, cause-and-effect-a-loon!

The Antagonist said...

Charlton's very good. Like that Adam chap is very good. Charlton is one of those modern old-media types that they have now. We didn't have them before the Internet, but we do have them now, those modern old-media types.

He's embraced that new Internet thing where nothing's real in the same way that most old media types on new media traditionally embrace the new Internet media thing, as just another ME broadcasting channel.

He's very good with it though, is Charlton. With his 328,723 'Followers', he's really really getting into the spirit of the whole 'social' vibe.

You have to see it working to understand how well he really does and what great effort goes into really 'getting' this new media for old-media types.

He does do his level best to keep up with all this modern Tweeting Internet thing and has slowly managed to work his way up to following all of 254 mostly living and breathing people whose tweets he doesn't read because he's deleted the All Friends column on his Tweetdeck.

But he's very good, with all that following as many as he does. 254 people whose Tweets he doesn't read because he's deleted his All Friends column on his Tweetdeck. But at least he's trying. It's very good to see and I really hope some of the other old-media broadcasters learn a trick or too from the slick way Charlton rolls.

We talked about it once, me and Charlton, on that Twitter thing that people have, and we decided that old-media people on that old new-media Internet thing, we decided that what they are is, by and large, those old-media people on the new media Internet, just using the Internet as another ME broadcasting channel, we decided that what they are is Twatcasters™.

The Antagonist said...

Previous Comment's Word Verification:

BOOED

Magic.

Stef said...

as well as basking in each other's zany madcap genius, BBC stalwarts Adam and Charlton also share a healthy and rational disdain for *all* conspiracy theories

fancy that

Stef said...

apparently, man of the people and well-remunerated professional piss-taker, Charlton gets fucked off when people refer to him by his christened name

especially on the Internet

I must remember to stop doing that one of these days

Stef said...

and no Charlton I don't believe that I am Emperor of Pluto but I'm pretty sure I know what you are

Anonymous said...

Fantastic Stuff, hilarious. Nice to see you posting again Stef.

History is a series of unintended consequences resulting from confused actions, some of which are committed by people who may think they’re taking part in a conspiracy, but it never works out the way they intended

Quite the sweeping statement there By A.C.

Derek Crystal-Palace said...

Just because some of us film ourselves talking to the television, there's no need to take the piss.

Stef said...

"Quite the sweeping statement there By A.C."

Yes, It's quite easy to see how full of crap A.C. is when you're not being mesmerized by the flashing lights and pretty noises

paul said...

some of which are committed by people who may think they’re taking part in a conspiracy

< scratches head />

In fairness,Mayfair Set was good

The Antagonist said...

In fairness,Mayfair Set was good

It's all part of the journey.

Until we learn what we learn and can utilise and apply the knowledge and wisdom that arises from that learning to guide our approach to the present and past, we can't prior to that time know what we don't know.

Which is more coherent than anything Donald Rumsfeld ever said....

Stef said...

On the subject of Rummy, the bit where the co-interviewer asks Rumsfeld if he's a flesh-eating lizard starts at about 2:30 in