LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

~At first, this may not seem an appropriate post for this community. But 47 minutes into the the first episode, The Dominionists come clearly into view. This series contextualizes their political power and shows how we all got the point we've presently reached. This is very scary stuff btw.

I have also created an RTF of the code for this post that I will e-mail to anyone who wishes to post it in their LJ. Just ask me: varian392003@yahoo.com

In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this, but their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered their people. Those dreams failed, and today people have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life.

But now they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand, and the greatest danger of all is international terrorism, a powerful and sinister network with sleeper cells in countries across the world - a threat that needs to be fought by a War on Terror.

But much of this threat is a fantasy which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It's a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media. This is a series of films about how and why that fantasy was created... and who it benefits.

- opening narrative to The Power of Nightmares

The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear

a BBC documentary series in three one-hour episodes

Part One: Baby It's Cold Outside

At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world, and both had a very similar explanation of what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together they created today's nightmare vision of a secret organized evil that threatens the world - a fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful.

Part Two: The Phantom Victory

In this episode, the two groups come together to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and both believe that they defeat the "evil empire" and so have the power to transform the world - but both fail in their revolutions. In response, the neo-conservatives invent a new fantasy enemy, Bill Clinton, to try and regain their power, while the Islamists descend into a desperate cycle of violence and terror to try and persuade the people to follow them. Out of this comes the strange world of fantasy, deception, violence and fear in which we now live.

Part Three: The Shadows In The Cave

Last week's episode ended in the mid-'90s with both groups marginalized and out of power, but with the attacks on September the 11th, the fates of both dramatically changed. The Islamists, after their moment of triumph, were virtually destroyed within months, while the neoconservatives took power in Washington - but then the neoconservatives began to reconstruct the Islamists. They created a phantom enemy and as this nightmare fantasy began to spread politicians realized the new power it gave them in a deeply disillusioned age. Those with the darkest nightmares became the most powerful.

...via gillen and jk_fabiani..see ya down in Gitmo, guys..lol