I have a friend who isn't a leftist that really likes all of his documentaries. I watched a few videos and the thing that stuck out to me is how much Curtis focuses on the individual thoughts and actions of specific people throughout history, with almost no focus on the systems that motivate their behavior.

For example, in "The Century of the Self" he discusses how Edward Bernays made it rich using his physchology background to become a marketing consultatant for some of the major corporations during the time period. These corporations were looking for a way to use psychology to manipulate the working class (what Curtis refers to as "the masses" for some reason) into buying their products.

From a materialist perspective Bernays isn't really important at all. He happened to be the person who began using psychology to market to people, but if it wasn't him there would have been someone else who did it.

Maybe this content works as a primer for a more materialist understanding of society and history, but to me it almost seems like he is hiding the ball. "It's not capitalism, it just a collection of individual decisions."

  • keepcarrot [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    He's a social constructivist and a libertarian (apparently? I always got anarchist vibes from him, he laments the lack of large radical political movements in the west), and tends to view the world through that lens. He also focuses on constructing stories, which rely often on tragic heroes and villains (some of which are people, sometimes ideas), as well as plot structure. While this makes his documentaries more accessible, it makes a lot of sacrifices for it and tends to overstate the importance of minor projects.

    He's has some interesting points to make, and I think he's on the money when it comes to reflecting on how power overwhelms noble ideas (though I think he is not critical of people's stated goals; it's pretty obvious economic think tanks lie constantly about poor people being better off). This can be twisted into a materialist analysis after a few drunk evenings watching his documentaries and discussing it with friends, but Curtis himself doesn't quite get there.

    He was a pretty important part of my own political evolution. My favourite is All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace, by way of it being about my industry and techno-utopians I meet online.