The Power of Nightmares
2004 · TV series · documentary · 60 min episodes · 1 season
Created by Adam Curtis
Examines how politicians have used our fears to increase their power and control over society.
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HyperNormalisation is one of many great documentaries by Adam Curtis, many of which are available on archive.org [1]. Specifically, I can recommend The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares. No need for YouTube :) FWIW, these used to be able on Google Video back when that still existed. And via torrents.
[1] https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Adam+Curtis%22
I remember an Adam Curtis documentary called The Power of Nightmares, in it, there are examples of making people scared, threats and anxiety to achieve political ends. Neoconservatives believed that making people scared about threats not only helps in actions against the perceived threat but helps increase social cohesion. They wanted people to come together in their worry, to form new social bonds shared by being scared about a common enemy.
The documentary gives the examples of Neocons's hyping up the threat about Islamic terrorism and Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. It's really rather good.
I'm always wary of earnest calls for people to be scared. Scared people are scary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares
Adam Curtis is honestly one of the greatest documentarians of our time. I first watched Hypernormalization, but then binged everything he ever made a few months ago.
More Adam Curtis recs: the DDT episode and the Kwame Nkrumah episode of Pandora’s Box (the rest are good too), The Way of All Flesh, and The Power of Nightmares. Also, Cant Get You Out Of My Head might be his masterpiece but it’s also not very accessible.
Watch everything by Adam Curtis. Century of the Self, The Trap and The Power of Nightmares specifically.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193231/
You might find some of Adam Curtis's films help you feel less baffled. Not that they have 'answers' but good contextual analysis that will give better understanding. Century of the Self, and Can't Get You Out of My Head are the most relevant here. Power of Nightmares, Bitter Lake and Hypernormalization are great too.
The Power of Nightmares (BBC / Adam Curtis) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430484/] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK3wz-OyR1U
I love Adam Curtis documentaries. The century of self, Power of nightmares, The trap and Hypernormalisation were all amazing. I might not agree with everything he says, but there is no denying that they are thought provoking, beautifully narrated and spectacularly well edited films.
If you haven't watched them yet, I would encourage you to do so.
The documentary "The Power Of Nightmares" by Adam Curtis highlights an excellent example of this.
During a 90s election in Algeria, a radical (and popular) Islamist party made it clear that if they won, their first action would be to cancel all future elections.
This basically put all the secular parties (both left and right) in a bind. Do you just proceed with the election as if everything's normal, even though it might be the end of democracy if the radical group wins? On the other hand, if you decide to boot out the radicals from the democratic process, haven't you now ended free and fair elections?
As the saying goes, a democracy gets the leader it deserves. Dictators sometimes get democratically chosen. The dictator chosen in Germany between WWI and WWII was also a symptom of a problem. You cannot simply deduce everything towards such one person; however you also cannot simply say he is executing the "Will of the People". We're not in direct democracies; we pick our leader for 4 years, and that leader (plus some others) have a lot of power during those. I used to say we rotate dictators we pick every 4 years, but back then I had a rather dystopian world-view.
As for G.W. "you are either for us, or against us" [1] Bush, people forgive and forget quickly. Though I'd argue he was just a vassal for Rummy, Cheney, et al. For an insight into Bush, watch the movie Vice from 2018. It centers around Dick Cheney, how he became Vice President. Bush successfully managed to get the hardcore Christians behind him, which I suppose was a natural path given the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal. Another good documentary of around that time is Adam Curtis' The Power Of Nightmares which you can find freely and legally on Archive.org.
[1] Bifurcation 101, very polarizing statement.
The Power Of Nightmares is another multi part documentary from around the time the US successfully invaded Iraq. It was made before the other mentioned documentaries.
IIRC these are all freely available on the Internet Archive. Or, they used to be.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I'll check it out.
The disinformation campaigns run by both politicians and companies is covered by Adam Curtis in his documentaries. I might as well mention his other works such as The Power of Nightmares, Bitter Lake, and HyperNormalization in addition to All Watched Over by Machines of Ever Loving Grace. The theme of control via intentional disinformation is a major one in his works.
And documentaries with titles such as The Power of Nightmares
This documentary series forever changed my view of the world and how it works. Everyone should see it (and to be thorough, read it's criticisms).
I also recommend his follow-up series "The Power of Nightmares" for the same reason — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg
I'm a big fan of most of Adam Curtis' documentaries...I like The Power of Nightmares the best
Having recently discovered Adam Curtis (from other HN posts), I'd highly recommend watching his documentaries. All of them. Absolutely riveting stuff.
HyperNormalization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2cDKyFdyU
Bitter Lake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbq63r7rys
The Trap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97Ywl7RtUw&list=PLsGiHTmHVDNlAc15kb23Q9Oz386MNXYIn
The Power of Nightmares: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg&list=PLtPP_-rkrT3CmuUxjezhbewL5C8fcI1Fv
The Mayfair Set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuqYbohCLFM&list=PLtPP_-rkrT3D-9HZkN0BAgMS1F1ODLQES
The Century of the Self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s
I've only seen "The Century Of The Self" and "The Power Of Nightmares". Both were great documentaries, of historic value IMO.
One can find them here [1]. Not only there, they're also available on Archive.org.
Dutch public broadcasting TV (NPO) has broadcasted various of his documentaries in the past, including with subtitles.
[1] https://thoughtmaybe.com/by/adam-curtis/
If you like this there are many other great documentaries by him - Century of the Self, Every day is Sunday, Bitter Lake, The Power of Nightmares (?) - watch them with a grain of salt, all of them, but definitely rewatch them, too..
(I know this is going to be a bit of a controversial statement for HN bc of politics and junk, but, to butcher and reconstitute a particuarly memorable Slavoj Zizek quote about Peter Sloterdijk, "Adam Curtis may be a conservative, but he's not an idiot!")
edit: if you dont have the 3 hrs to watch this documentary, you can get a great taste by watching this podcast clip set to some particularly moving imagery and music.. (hat tip to adam curtis editing style, perhaps? ;) )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW_R98EBO7s
edit2: transcript, because its worth it:
> WILL MENAKER: What would it look like to imagine a different world? Do you have a vision of it How would we know if we were beginning to imagine a different world? Even within this hyper-real one?
> ADAM CURTIS: You ask what real change might look like, and I think that’s a really interesting question for liberals and radicals, because there is a hunger for change, out there - millions of people who feel sort of insecure, uncertain about the future who DO want something to change. I think that change only comes though a big imaginative idea. A sort of picture of another kind of future which gives people - which connects with that fearfulness in the back of people’s minds. And offers them a release from it. That's the key thing. But I think the question for liberals and radicals is - they are always suspicious of big ideas. That's what lurks underneath the liberal mindset. And the reason is - and they are quite right in a way - is look what happened last time when millions of people got swept up in a big idea! Look up the last hundred years - what happened in Russia, and then in Germany. The point is , Is that Political change is frightening. It's scary — it's thrilling because it is dynamic and is doing something to change the world but it is scary because it can change things in ways where nothing to secure. Its like being in an earthquake. Even the solid ground beneath you begins to move. And things dissolve that you think are solid and real. And I think the question liberals are left have to face at the moment is a really sort of difficult question which is: “do you really want change? do you really want it?” Because if you do many of them might find themselves in a very uncertain world where they might lose all sorts of things. What we were talking about, in many cases, is people who are at the center of society at the moment, they are not out in the margins. They would have a lot to lose from real political change because it really would change things in the structure of power.
Or - and this is the brutal question: Do you just want things to change a little bit? Do you just want the banks to be a little bit nicer, or for people to be a little more respectful of each other's identities - All of which is good - but basically you carry on living in a nice world where you tinker with it.
That’s the key question. But you can't just sit there forever worrying about big ideas because there are millions of people out there who do you want Change. And the key thing is: they feel they’ve got nothing to lose. You might have lots to lose, but they feel they’ve got absolute nothing to lose. But at the moment they're being led by the Right. So things won't remain the same. But society may go off in ways you really don’t want.
SO in answer to your question, what you need is a powerful vision of the future. With all its dangers. But it is also quite thrilling. It will be an escape from the staticness of the world we have today. And to do that, you’ve got to engage with the giant forces of power that now run the world, at the moment. And the key thing is that in confronting those powers, and trying to transform the world you might lose a lot. This is a sort of forgotten idea. Is that actually you surrender yourself up to a big idea and in the the process you might lose something but you’d actually gain a bigger sense, because you change the world for the better. I know it sounds soppy, But this is the forgotten thing about politics. Is that you give up some of your individualism to something bigger than yourself. You surrender yourself - and it’s a lost idea. And I think really in answer to your question: You can spot real change happening when you see people from the liberal middle classes, beginning to give themselves up to something. Surrender themselves for something bigger. And at the moment, there is nothing like that in the liberal imagination.
I on the other hand like the style for its own sake but enjoyed HyperNormalisation a lot less than Bitter Lake or The Power of Nightmares. But the style really does not help the credibility of the story or allows following the argument and spotting potential holes in it. In the end I am left with the feeling to either forget about it or having to fact check the whole thing. There are certainly interesting points in his films but they are almost impossible to evaluate without consulting other sources.
That's a documentary by Adam Curtis [0]. Various of his documentaries are generally available on Archive.org, including this one. Its 4 parts [1] [2] [3] [4]. I've seen The Power Of Nightmares and The Century Of The Self. Both highly recommended though I didn't remember Clipper chip was mentioned.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis
[1] https://archive.org/details/TheCenturyOfTheSelfPart1
[2] https://archive.org/details/TheCenturyOfTheSelfPart2
[3] https://archive.org/details/TheCenturyOfTheSelfPart3
[4] https://archive.org/details/TheCenturyOfTheSelfPart4
You're right about ISIS for what its worth. The documentary "The Power of Nightmares" is a really good introduction to the background of that whole story for people who criticize you on the topic. Its very accessible and well researched (and from the BBC, so reputable).
But yeah, the short and long of it is that Donald Rumsfeld specifically disbanded the Iraqi command structure after the invasion, against President Bush's orders, because he believed (correctly) that it would result in large groups of them forming armed militias and start a middle eastern uprising. His belief, thanks to the teachings of his mentor Leo Strauss, was that without a mortal philosophical enemy the United States could stay at perpetual war with, the US, buoyed by continued economic prosperity, would continue drifting towards liberal ideals like economic, social and racial equality, and away from things like duty, honor, and fear of god; which in his mind, made America great.
In short, they believed the fear of communism is what kept Americans in line, and that the progress of the 60s, once that fear started collapsing, was something that needed to be avoided at all costs from occurring again. So they needed a new enemy, even if we had to make it ourselves.
Rumsfeld even, at one point, came out and explicitly said that that was his goal at the time, so its not even a conspiracy. Its publicly stated fact, that gets little to no news coverage.
Its like when Dick Cheney came out in an interview over the biopic he published, and admitted on air that the reason he was for torturing people [paraphrased]: "had nothing to do with intelligence. If we tortured suspected terrorists, no one would ever be able to call the Republican party weak on terrorism". He literally admitted to a war crime, and nothing happened.
That's why I loved London's reaction to the 2005: "That's all you got?? Not afraid, go away" (I was living there at the time).
Also relevant and always worth it: The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear, 3 part BBC documentary by Alan Curtis.
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg
All his documentary series are worth watching. These are
Hypernormalisation
Bitter Lake
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
Every Day is like Sunday
The Power of Nightmares
The Century of the Self
The Trap
Pandora's Box
The Mayfair Set
Inside Story
Inquiry. The Great British Housing Disaster
The last one is particularly relevant after the Grenfell Tower Fire.
This seems like it should be flagged. Not really HN material.
Plus a lot of this is misleading. The Soviet threat was exaggerated to a large degree. Regan's Team B invented weapons that did not exist.
If you want an objective look at the cold war vs the war on terror, I highly suggest The Power of Nightmares, a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis.
Power of Nightmares is a Bush era film that first got my attention, IMO his best to date
It's timely this should come up as I've been on a bit of an Adam Curtis binge lately, having recently watched half of HyperNormalisation and then the entirety of the 'The Power Of Nightmares' series. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of his work.
One question I have for those that have seen his stuff - a recurring criticism I see of Curtis' work is that he states his opinions as if they are historical facts and heavily editorialises, leaving out important chunks of history because they don't support the view he's trying to push.
Are these accurate criticisms? I don't want to feel like I'm learning about history when in actuality I'm being fed something that's inaccurate (thanks 'King of Kong' for ruining my trust in documentaries, but I digress!). For example after watching 'The Power Of Nightmares' I feel like I know much more about what was going on in the world of geopolitics in the 80s and 90s, but I'd hate to think that I've just picked up a series of falsehoods (doubt this is the case though).
I'd start with the BBC documentary: "The Power of Nightmares." It comes in three parts and covers the entire cold war era up to the early 2000s.
You may also want to read up on Sayyid Qutb and Leo Strauss.
America's manned drone programs are an outright war-crime. This video from 2012 is telling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ46ZkJY8oo
..and sadly nothing has changed. Obama has continued to authorize the use of drones to kill countless people we know little to nothing about, without any type of oversight. Make no mistake; no matter who wins the coming election, this will continue and escalate. It will not make the world safer.
Wasn't China our allay? I'm pretty sure they make all of our stuff .. including many of the electronic components that make their way into drones.
The Russian rhetoric hasn't changed at all since the Cold War when Regan's Team B was making up all kinds of technologies the Russians didn't actually have in order to continue defence spending (see the documentary: The Power of Nightmares).
The type of propaganda we see obfuscates the reality of western foreign policy. US supported rebels in Syria decapitated a kid who looks to be about 12 ~ 13 years old. The BBC cropped the photo to remove the kid and then claimed they killed a dangerous young combatant. (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzEsDAoUvOI)
View every attempt to justify more war and more bombings critically. They will not make the world safer.
> Saudi is in some respects the bizarro version of the US
And that's the subject of another Adam Curtis documentary, The Power of Nightmares.
The Power of Nightmares [1] is a really scary series of movies about how extremists on both sides use each other to further their agenda.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares
Concerning al-Qaida and ISIS, give the Adam Curtis documentary, "The Power of Nightmares" a watch.
Obligatory reference to "The Power of Nightmares (The Rise of the Politics of Fear)" by Adam Curtis.
If you haven't watched it, it's a must see. well worth the 3 hours for the whole series. I re-watch it every couple of years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares
http://vimeo.com/84414208
http://vimeo.com/84389928
http://vimeo.com/84421510
I agree with everything you said, except for the last few sentences about ISIS. The creation of a "moral enemy" in the middle east was an explicitly acknowledged goal of the neo-conservative wing of the Bush administration, and took some 14 years to accomplish. I strongly suggest watching the BBC's documentary "The Power Of Nightmares" as a good introductory source.
As retold by Adam Curtis in the excellent BBC three-parter "The Power of Nightmares":
3a. CIA people told new director, "er, boss, that was actually us".
3b. CIA director does not believe his own people.
And of course the whole "Team B" episode (Rumsfeld etc.), where the complete lack of evidence that the Soviets had <weapon-of-choice> was reinterpreted to mean they MUST OBVIOUSLY HAVE <even-worse-than-weapon-of-choice-even-if-physically-impossible> and perfect secrecy, otherwise how could we not have found any evidence?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares
http://vimeo.com/84414208
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_B
This is actually well overdue, Curtis is a genius whose work will appeal to a lot of people here.
It's not considered his best stuff, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace is probably most relevant to HN and all three episodes are well worth watching.
IMO his best stuff is on the coincidence and movement of political power. Check out The Trap and The Mayfair Set. The Power of Nightmares is good too.
The author of the article also made a documentary titled "The Power of Nightmares". I recommend everybody with any interest in the recent history of the world watch the documentary. It's available at the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares-Episode1BabyItsColdOutside
BBC did a good documentary on this very subject:
"The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430484/
Seems fear, ignorance and apathy is still working out just fine unfortunately.
I agree, even if you don't agree with Adam Curtis's politics, his documentaries are very thought provoking and well worth watching. Some of my favourites include "The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream", "The Century of self", "Pandora's Box", "All watched over by Machines Loving Grace". If you enjoyed this particular blog post, check out "The Power of Nightmares".
Exactly. We can't promise you dreams, but we can keep you safe from nightmares. Of course, we need some nightmares for that.
For details, see the BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares (The Rise of the Politics of Fear)" by Adam Curtis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGo1DqmfHjY
>Or, was it because the US correctly assessed the USSR's threat and planned accordingly?
Absolutely not. Read/watch some Noam Chomsky and/or various BBC documentaries like "The power of nightmares". The USSR was falling apart. Yes, they had nukes and could have nuked us but the threat was vastly overblown precisely for the reason the GP states: to give us a boogy man to be scared of.
Nice article, thanks for posting. Money quote:
The more we buy into consumerism as a lifestyle, the less we are able to see clearly and become independent, as our social stature begins to depend on our consumerist successes.
The slavemasters here are ourselves, or more accurately our subconscious desires (to be popular, sexy and powerful) as interpreted and channeled by the market.
On this subject, I would strongly recommend Adam Curtis' BBC documentary series 'The Century of the Self' which documents the rise of consumerism and the psychoanalytical theories underpinning it. It really opened my eyes to the many parts of our culture that I'd considered eternal that are in fact entirely C20th creations.
I don't think it's actually available legally, but your favourite torrent site can certainly find it. 'The Power of Nightmares' is another of his masterworks. There's a complete Curtis archive torrent out there, which is probably among the most informative single downloads in existence.
This description makes these docs sound like they come from the conspiratorial wing of filmmaking. (no insult implied mcantelon.)
However, they are in fact some of the most important pieces of film I have ever watched, and Adam Curtis is one of the greatest documentary makers ever.
I encourage you to watch all these, then go and watch all his other works, starting with the Power of Nightmares.
If you enjoyed this, you might like Adam Curtis' documentaries, such as The Century of The Self - a documentary about the rise of mass consumerism[1], or The Power of Nightmares - an incredible 3 part documentary on how the neocons needed an enemy in the east as much as Osama needed an enemy in the west in order to strike terror into their own sides[2].
[1] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyPzGUsYyKM
[2] - http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
>Why Russia?
Your question seems to indicate the belief in a global terrorist organization. I would recommend the BBC documentary "Power of nightmares" to clear up this misunderstanding.
In short, Al Queida is a name we made up and there is no global terrorist organization. There are and were a lot of isolated terrorist groups but they don't have some common goal. They're as likely to fight each other as anyone else. The terrorist groups that do exist attack their own enemies (e.g. IRA attacked England, Chechen separatist attack Russia, etc.).
It is worth watching a documentary titled "The Power of Nightmares" which will give some insight into "why Iraq" and "why Israel." And the answers to "why Israel" will explain why the choice of Lieberman (who is frequently titled "the Senator for Israel") for Gore's running mate appeared to be the right choice at that time.
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Nightmares-Various/dp/B001707D98
If your local library has a copy, I strongly recommend watching it.
Interesting connection with self-esteem and fear:
"if you feel good about yourself, you’ll listen — and if you feel insecure or threatened, you won’t. This would also explain why demagogues benefit from keeping people agitated."
This theme is developed well in the "Power of Nightmares" documentary by Adam Curtis. The more scared the people are, the easier to control them. I think Leo Strauss and his neocon followers realized this. Deep down they wanted to help their country. But realized that "the informed, rational citizen" didn't exist, aside from a narrow "elite" segment that truly understands how things work. So this ruling elite should create powerful myths for people to believe in. People have to be led by irrational fears and beliefs.
No, I watched it all, just a long time ago and had forgotten most of it, to be honest. But I had not forgotten the overall thrust of the programme.
To try and clarify my view a bit, IMO the terrorist "groups" we hear about today are more like Anonymous than they are like the fictional villainous organisations one might see in a James Bond movie, i.e. they're not even really organisations at all, they're just individuals or tiny groups, barely associated with each other at best, who happen to have similar positions on certain issues. But I wanted to make this point without sounding like I thought Anonymous should be branded as terrorists, because I don't.
I get that after 9/11, the entire western world's governments went well overboard, amazingly allowing the military industrial complex to write their own cheques, using scare tactics to allow this to continue. I knew this full well long before I saw The Power of Nightmares. Before I say what else I have to say, I again don't wish my position to be misconstrued, I'm not advocating for the usual government policies, I'm aware of how insignificant the threat of terrorism is when compared to other threats of the day that face our society and I usually find myself pretty firmly on the social-libertarian side of just about any debate. As you say: "these organizations are largely fictional" (emphasis added) and I totally agree. I cannot reconcile any view that we do not need some degree of vigilance when it comes to (the no doubt few and far between) individuals and small groups that are out there and do wish to perpetrate terrorist acts.
So following on from this, yes, terrorism is an overinflated menace and it continues to be overinflated for numerous reasons, most of which revolve around certain areas of government and private industry partners who have vested interests in keeping the public scared in order to maintain power and profit. But some part of the overreaction to terrorism does come from a place of honestly thinking they're doing the right thing, misguided though they may be. Some very small part of the usual government reaction to terrorism is - in my mind - sanctioned and required because terrorism while a largely overinflated boogie man, does none the less still exist. I don't wish to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I'm not wishing to argue that labeling Anonymous as a terrorist orgainsation would be a good thing (it would be monumentally retarded, which is why I also think there's a good chance it will happen at some point, I have little faith in government common sense these days) but this problem of how to handle these distributed non-orgnaisations that we see today is quite relevant to the way governments were/are trying to handle terrorism. I remember watching a documentary - I think it was called The Power of Nightmares - that stated amongst other things that after 9/11 the US Government basically began using laws originally designed to combat organised crime (Mafia et al) and applying them to these new, relatively flat, loosely organised and decentralised groups with very little success, primarily because there was no command structure similar what they had been used to dealing with.
Governments are still wrestling with what to do about this issue I think. It seems that the best solution they have so far come up with is reducing civil liberty and surveilling everyone. Not ideal from my POV.
Not to mention that as the saying goes, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
>(well, except you ;-)
Don't get me wrong; I love my mac book pro, my smart phone, playing silly RPG games, watching movies and so on.
I'm simply not prepared to claim that having these things makes me superior to other ways of life. It's different, but it's hard to say superior when a pie chart of how my life is spent would be made up mostly of work and sleep.
>It's based largely on personal memory of a lot of the things said during the lead-up to the invasion. "Beacon of democracy" was used several times in his press releases to drum up support for the war. The "domino theory" of liberalization was discussed in my International Relations course. In both the Bush and Kerry campaigns, there were widespread discussions about how to "win the peace".
I would recommend to you the BBC film "The power of nightmares". I do believe actual terrorists are responsible for 9/11, but I think nearly everything else we've seen or heard (Al Quieda and so on) is very much exaggerated or lied about (I don't buy this "we need a beacon of freedom" at all). As far as I can tell, the biggest thing that has actually happened from the Iraq war is a lot of tax payer money being transfered into the pockets of companies owned by people in Bush's staff.
The Century of the Self is an amazing documentary. Everyone in this country, and the western world should see it. That and the Power of Nightmares also by Adam Curtis.
That's funny because there is that BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares about how politicians gain power by attaching their message to whatever the populace is currently having nightmares about, and by creating new nightmares as well.