The Power of Nightmares

On the eve of the mid-term election ... consider watching this three-part documentary from the BBC -- The Power of Nightmares -- which aired in Januaury 2005. The director explores the origin of Islamic fundamentalism as well as American neo-conservatism.

In April 2005, the director provided background on the film to the Village Voice:

The Power of Nightmares—which receives its first New York screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival this week—does not say that the Islamist terrorist threat is an illusion. The West does face a deadly threat from groups and individuals inspired by dangerous ideas—the horrific attacks on America and the bombings in Madrid and Bali make this only too clear. But the film also argues that the true nature of this threat has been completely misunderstood by governments, security services, and the international media. It has been distorted and exaggerated to create a vision of a unique threat unlike anything we have faced that justifies extreme countermeasures. This fantasy, which has trapped our leaders and our media, prevents us from comprehending and dealing with the dangers we face. The film tells not only how it was created but also why, and in whose interest....

As I researched the subject, I stumbled on the work of a little-known Arab political writer called Sayyid Qutb, who visited America in 1949 and came away with a deeply pessimistic vision of post-war consumer culture. He believed that the rise of individualism had unleashed a selfishness on the world that was tearing away the moral bonds that held society together. Qutb was no alien thinker: He had read Nietzsche, Marx, and Sartre, and his criticism of modern America, though Islamic in origin, was also born out of a Western conservative tradition. Qutb's ideas would directly inspire those who flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

At the same time, I was reading about the history of the neo-conservative movement and its theoretical background. This led me to the works of a political theorist called Leo Strauss. His analysis of modern democracy was that its shared moral values were in danger of corrosion by a selfish individualism that questioned everything. He too took a great deal from Nietzsche. Strauss's ideas were to become one of the important forces that shaped the thinking of the neo-conservative movement.

Watch It Online
The film is available online in a variety of formats. The Internet Archive provides both streaming and downloadable versions in mp2 and mp4 formats. You can also download an NTSC DVD ISO. At this writing, there have been 101,833 downloads. There is also a discussion thread.

It is available at Google Video: Part 1, Baby It's Cold Outside, Part 2, Phantom Victory and Part 3, Shadows In The Cave.

It is also available via YouTube: Part 1: Baby It's Cold Outside (1a, 1b); Part 2: Phantom Victory (2a, 2b); Part 3: Shadows In The Cave (3a, 3b).

More: Review, Interview with the director

I close tonight with my favorite political quotation, from Susan B. Anthony:

The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.