The Century of the Self
The link
The Century of the Self part 2: The Engineering of Consent, on Vimeo
The Century of the Self part 3: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed, on Vimeo
The Century of the Self part 3: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed, on Vimeo
The Vimeo links are by different people,
who may or may not represent the content owners. A DVD of the documentary has
been produced, but appears to be hard to get; you may have more success looking
for an “Adam Curtis set”. I found no usable YouTube links to speak of.
What it is
“The Century of the Self” is a 2002 documentary
by Adam Curtis. It looks at mass communication and influencing tactics in the 20th
century, by corporations, governments and individuals. Starting form the work
of Freud, and its application in marketing by Edward Bernays, it builds a
narrative up to the 1990’s elections of Clinton in the U.S. and “New Labour” in
the U.K.
It’s also long: four parts, each of them an hour long. I won’t ask you to
watch the videos first, this time.
What it means to me
In an age
of mass information, staying informed has to include being critical of the media you consume. “The Century of the Self” shows you why.
Perhaps nothing more telling is that, before linking these documentaries in a blog post, I did a search of common criticism to build a complete picture of whether or not it is worthwhile. To save you the time: critics are positive, there are some notes on the political message (both for being too critical of corporations and for being too soft on them), and some of the causality described in the documentaries may not be as clear-cut as presented.
Perhaps nothing more telling is that, before linking these documentaries in a blog post, I did a search of common criticism to build a complete picture of whether or not it is worthwhile. To save you the time: critics are positive, there are some notes on the political message (both for being too critical of corporations and for being too soft on them), and some of the causality described in the documentaries may not be as clear-cut as presented.
The first two chapters describe what is effectively a media war between corporations and politicians (particularly Franklin Delano Roosevelt), and show a conflict of the 1930’s I hardly knew about. These films
describe mass media from the point of view of the communicators, the ones who
send a message, and show how they try to
influence you. Many communications channels were, and are still, highly asymmetrical: a
single entity talks, writes or presents to a large audience at once (hence the
term broadcasting).
The second
and third chapters dive into marketing, particularly the shift of marketing from
persuading through facts to persuading through emotion. It was eye-opening for me that the
counterculture movement of the sixties and seventies actually paved the
way for emotional marketing: this counterculture movement stressed that having an identity is important, and if you have a well-defined sense of identity, selling into that identity
is very effective.
It turns
out to be just as easy to sell Volkswagen vans to 60’s hippies as it is to sell
refrigerators to 50’s housewives.
The final
installment discusses focus groups, political strategy, and political parties reinventing
themselves to appeal to swing voters over their traditional voting blocks.
Many
reviews of “The Century of the Self” stress the psychoanalysis part, which I honestly
think is the least interesting subject of the documentary. Others stress how big
corporate interests in our lives have become, which is true but not particularly
revolutionary. I think the documentaries work best as part history lesson, part
marketing manual. One you know the tricks and tactics discussed, you’ll be able to
recognize them. Thus, you can make better decisions, including “I’m going to let his
marketing affect me because I’m okay with that” (on small DIY computers, for example). What
“The Century of the Self” does better than any other documentary I've seen is
make you aware of the agendas of people who communicate to you, end help you see
the world differently.
Isn't that
what we watch documentaries for?
