Hacker Cinema
Wild Wild Country
2018 · TV series · documentary · 67 min episodes · 1 season
When a controversial cult leader builds a utopian city in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal.
17 positive4 neutralfrom 21 commenters
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21 comments on Hacker News
My second favorite “Wild, Wild, Country”, but it was mentioned already at the top of the first list. I enjoy it as a cautionary tale, but I also unironically find it an inspiring tale of building, even if it turns out to bad.
My favorite documentary is “The Barkley Marathons, the race that eats it’s young”
I return to it at least once a year, and while the root of the story - watching people attempt the impossible is certainly inspiring, I find its moral themes are what I appreciate about it the most. The idea of competition as a collective activity, that everyone wants to win, but also everyone wants to see others win their own race, that there’s something about the way that it advances our understanding of humanity that is more important than individual success.
Then also - that your race is yours alone, and that the most important victory is the one you define for yourself. There are people who finish only one or three laps of the five lap marathon, and that failure is a greater achievement than most people will ever know, and they clearly see it that way, there’s near no shame in anyone’s performance and people are clearly defining success for themselves, mostly clearly beyond what anyone else would define it for them. And finally, it’s kind of a throwaway line, but one of the runners says “I think most people could use more pain in their lives.” And it made me realize that often, when enduring hardship, rather than turning away from it, finding ways to challenge myself on my terms is a healthier approach to stress than “relaxing”.
Oh I've seen Wild Wild Country, that made sense to me and there's a logical thread to follow. Osho was also (for some time) a legitimately intelligent and charismatic leader/writer/philosopher able to rally smart people.
The story here on Wikipedia paints a picture of a destitute super-fringe cult that disappears for 20 years and then emerges with some level of tech wizardry and no mention of anyone that was responsible for that. There is an HBO docuseries.
Wild Wild Country is an excellent Netflix documentary on the whole movement.
Sorry for the delay, got caught up with the kid and cooking.
Of course! What's interesting to you about it, out of curiosity?
I do still consider myself a follower of Osho. I technically haven't taken sannyas (this is the name of the process of formally joining Osho as a disciple and receiving a new name -- eg 'Sheela' or 'Devaraj' -- and mala), but these days, in my opinion at least, that isn't a critical aspect of being part of the community. (FYI, sannyas is also a term in hinduism for renouncing your life and becoming a monk, basically, but 'neo-sannyas,' created by Osho, is renunciation-free; you're basically just saying, I'm serious about this meditation thing).
I thought Wild Wild Country was an excellent documentary about a really, really juicy and evocative topic. I'm bummed that they didn't spend at least a LITTLE more time on the question of "why do these people like Osho so much" (and what does Osho have to say), but I understand that that wasn't really the point of the documentary, which was to focus on a wild, explosive story. To me, an equally interesting story is why the heck were a bunch of highly-educated, independent doctors and lawyers moving out into the middle of nowhere to be self-sustaining and celebratory? Why did they seem so much happier than everyone else in our society, at least at certain points? But the story that sells better is 'why did this lady try to kill this other guy.' I'm hoping there will be a sequel that goes in greater depth.
Have a blessed day!
A couple of recent Netflix docu-series I liked are Evil Genius and Wild Wild Country.
Am following this topic from another thread on HN today about soundscapes and binaural beats, and what is the theoretical framework behind it, or is it just sympathetic magic?
I was in a meeting yesterday about the truth and reconciliation stuff going on in Canada right now, and the first hour of the meeting was given to people who were sharing their experiences of residential schools by telling stories about them. The storytellers were fantastic, and one of them had a mesmerising and hypnotic effect that I was trying to isolate as a technique. I could see others attempting it as well. I had seen a similar story telling technique used by top professional stage actors in the past. When you watch the documentary, "Wild Wild Country," which is about charismatic spiritual leadership, they use a similar verbal mesmerism technique that can give people "chills," which are also physiological response, just not a cardiogram effect.
Working in tech, one encounters improbable clusters of professors, behavioral economics readers, intelligence operatives, ad-tech designers, political campaign operatives, magicians, hypnotists, practitioners of so-called NLP, "pick up artists," con artists, and other people who practice and apply systematized methods of persuasion. My interest in it is mainly for experimenting with music, but my own practice of a simlar dynamic would be exercising craft as a writer.
Of what is this synchronization and mesmerism the effect?
I’m remember the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country in which what effectively was a cult purchased a large plot of land that had been killed by something along the lines of overuse/neglect/etc. and all sorts of people scientists/lawyers/engineers came together and basically resorted it, made it arable and wild life returned. Shame it probably couldn’t happen without the cult aspect.
Agree with all you've written, just wanted to call out how Pollan painted the tension between Hubbard and Leary specifically. I'll check out the book Acid Dreams and I just ordered Electric Kool Aid Test to get a better understanding of the merry prankster scene.
I believe some of the 60's and 70's youth found sustainable ways to live outside the mainstream, but many of the communes/alternative living situations were volatile and corrupt. Take for example the Rajneesh community out in Oregon [1]...so much energy and potential channeled into a corrupt and ultimately destructive/pointless enterprise. The corporate way is the safe way in America, and I think many people were looking for safety in a confusing time when many alternatives looked bleak.
That said, this is just conjecture, I was born in the 90s so I have no first hand experience.
[1] great documentary on the Rajneesh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_Country
I know that feeling of being caught up in the energy of a crowd. Massive music festivals can often provide that feeling.
Another anecdote I frequently recall is one from the documentary "Wild Wild Country". This documentary follows an Indian guru named Osho as he establishes what amounts to a cult in the US. One journalist recounts going to the town where the community has established themselves with a mind to expose them as a cult. He relates the members lining the streets waiting for the Guru to drive along and he can't help but feel their ecstatic energy as they wait for him. As the car slowly drives down he sees the adherents completely lose control of themselves as the car slowly passes them. When the car arrives in front of him he makes eye contact with Osho, the guru, and the journalist himself burst into tears. He didn't become an adherent or start to subscribe to the cults beliefs but he was overcome in that moment.
There is a documentary on Netflix about it called Wild Wild Country that's almost entirely primary-source video (they recorded everything) and modern-day interviews with former members and government officials. It's fascinating.
I went to the OSHO meditation center in Pune, India for a few days, while working over there about a year ago. It changed my entire outlook on life, non-withstanding the Netflix documentary "Wild Wild Country" which is about the meditation group.
I did three days of 15 hour different meditations. To this day, I still feel totally relaxed during contentious business projects. I plan on going again at some point.
I was equally annoyed by the narrative intro, angrily skimming to find the answer. Unfortunately, I think its a trend within information media – I find myself skimming Atlas Obscura the same way I skim Nautilus. These articles are good for keywords to prompt the real search…
This style is leaking into documentaries too. The best example is "Wild Wild Country" – a six hour long docuseries where I still had to read the wikipedia page afterwards.
Mad Men didn't even have an audience when it aired (<2 million viewers most episodes), and airs on a network that likely won't exist in 5-6 years (or at least won't be producing new content), so it's not super clear to me what your point is about those shows as evidence of how a network grows. The way a network grows is by producing content people want to watch, whether that's disposable content made to last a minute or content made to last the test of time. HBO isn't growing because people are subscribing to watch Sopranos re-runs.
Past reporting suggests churn in most subscription content services is very low, so your Netflix cancellation may be unusual. I'd also add that exclusive content is one part of the story, but there's also a lot of licensed content that's very good on Netflix as on other services.
But for what it is worth, I would rank the following Netflix originals to be "top tier" within their genre -- some of these genres lend themselves more to rewatching than others, and some are closer to my taste than others, some held up in quality through their run more than others, so in a sense I am ranking shows based on their peak quality --
Orange is the New Black; Bloodline; Stranger Things; The Crown; Gilmore Girls AYITL; The OA; A Series of Unfortunate Events; Mindhunter; The Haunting of Hill House; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; Master of None; Love; Lady Dynamite; Santa Clarita Diet; GLOW; American Vandal; Maniac; Bojack Horseman; F is for Family; Disenchantment; Hilda; Dark; The Rain; Elite; Chef's Table; Making a Murderer; Shot in the Dark; Wormwood; Wild Wild Country; Salt Fat Acid Heat; Queer Eye; The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell; My Next Guest Needs No Introduction; Lilyhammer; Terrace House; Alias Grace; The End of the Fucking World; Collateral; Wanderlust; Longmire; Black Mirror; Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
In addition to these, the following shows are Netflix originals in my region, indicating that although someone else initially funded them, Netflix bought them for exclusive distribution here, and also meet the above requirements:
Babylon Berlin; Bodyguard; Casé; Crashing; Cuckoo; Derry Girls; The Great British Baking Show; Happy!; Happy Valley; The Investigator; Peaky Blinders; River.
I have pretty broad taste in TV and watch a lot of TV while I am programming or running data analysis, so maybe the breadth of stuff I include here is surprising to most. But to the extent your post is a useful anecdote about how Netflix has no great shows, I'm responding to your challenge to "Name one show" that would meet that criteria.
(These are TV shows only, not films. I haven't really liked many Netflix original films although there are a few I would say are great, like Okja and Roma)
I’m also a bit wary of communes in general. The line between a commune and a cult is basically non-existent. For an example of this, I’d highly recommend the Netflix documentary “Wild Wild Country”, which explores a commune gone wrong.
Wild Wild Country on Netflix is outstanding: https://www.netflix.com/title/80145240/
I'm also a big fan of BBC Horizon's episodes, they cover a wide range of topics and generally are quite excellent and well researched. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf
Scared Games is awesome. There's also another original documentary series Netflix recently launched which is 'Wild Wild Country' and its based on cult Indian figure Osho and the time he spent in Oregon. It's worth watching too.
Check out Rajneeshpuram [0], built by the Rajneeshees in Oregon. There's a Netflix documentary about it now, called "Wild, Wild Country". Definitely worth checking out.
Besides all the controversy surrounding it, it was actually a pretty interesting example of "buying land and building a city from scratch".
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneeshpuram [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_Country
My wife and I were watching Wild Wild Country (events from the 80s) the other week and we commented on how skinny everyone in the cult/commune was. Image in the header here:
https://www.elitedaily.com/p/netflixs-wild-wild-country-documentary-series-is-about-to-be-your-new-obsession-8527272
You'd be working hard to find a cross-section of non-athletes/models in the US these days that didn't include a reasonable number of larger people.
Sugar lobbyists have a lot to answer for IMO.
I enjoyed Wild, Wild, Country as well. Although as a microbiologist I was only aware of the Rajaneeshee due to the salad bar attack and was surprised how little that was dealt with in the documentary as opposed to internal power struggles between Ma Anand Sheela and her rivals.
Yes, at least if you take the documentary's word, the majority of the Rajaneeshee including the Baghwan himself were harmless hippies and it was pretty much Sheela that was the problem.
Netflix recently released a 6 part documentary series titled "Wild Wild Country" that follows the sequence of events leading up to this incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_Country
For an interesting take on this, read about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneeshpuram and consider watching the documentary "Wild Wild Country" on Netflix. I thought it was fascinating.