Adam Curtis usually has exemplary documentary narratives, however this circuitous confused rant does little to convince me of his position, if it's even clear what his position is in this*. Again, I have previously loved his earlier works, particularly Century of the Self which influenced me greatly, but in HyperNormalization he goes from UFO conspiracies to perception management to the collapse of the soviet union to individualism to the death of aspirational politics to Artificial Intelligence to Prozac to data gathering, I'm not joking, all in the space of 10 minutes, without giving clear reasons as to how he weaves that thread. Don't believe me? See for yourself: 1:06:38
*The one clear point Adam Curtis makes is encapsulated best more in the title of his film than in the film itself. That we know that our rulers know that we know that things aren't right, but we still play along as if everything is "normal". This is not revelatory, and HyperNormalization seeks to "prove" this to you by confusing you with different versions of reality. What I believe HyperNormalization really is, is in fact the narrative of capitalism wearing so dangerously thin that now everyone can see through its gaping holes. Our collective schizophrenia comes from living between the opposing concepts of needing to survive in the artificial Game of Money while the system remains in tact and not knowing what will come let alone being prepared when this global mental edifice finally collapses, which it inevitably will.
During interviews Mr Curtis often blames the left for not coming up with a system that is a valid alternative. The reason why no valid alternative exists, if you're reading this, Adam, is because the actual genuine solution (yes, I have it right here, and I'm about to tell you) is a global one which requires the unification of the people of the Earth. The official moment when that happens is when we create for ourselves the opportunity of a global vote. It's a simple as that. As soon as we all vote on the same, whether we all agree or not, we are united for the first time, officially. What makes our collective unification so complicated to achieve however is that it must be done completely on our own, and separate from the current systems of power. It has to be a profoundly human endeavour. The hilarious epiphany one eventually has about this is that we can do it at any time. We don't have to ask permission from our governments, or the corporations. In fact, we mustn't. And all we need to do is simply record, like a global poll, our opinion about something, anything, without the help/influence of any institution. If we do that, we stop the blind, but accelerating progress of our previous existence and become a self aware single organism that finally has the ability to learn as one, through successes and failures, and can begin to determine for ourselves a more clear-eyed vision of progress, the rate of this progress, and even the size of its influence (re: population) without any institution overseeing it or needing to coerce its conclusions. The results of a global vote will have the highest authority without the need to be ratified, but simply existing as the voice of the planet's inhabitants.
Every attempt at a revolution thus far, like with the occupy movement, etc, fails to realize the scope of what it needs to do. And the simplicity of it as well. Whilst the current money game/system owns our minds and we continue to walk around in money comas being the programmed happy consumers we are, driving ourselves to collective suicide, such a revolutionary idea like this, because it exists outside of the system, will get either drowned out by the flood of information from the internet or derided as either nonsense, or some kind of New World Order conspiracy to enslave us and put computer chips in our arms, or whatever, which speaks to the confusion created by Perception Management described in HyperNormalization.
Even with this film being the disappointment I found it to be, I could still appreciate it as another engaging conversation about an evolving world view from someone I greatly admire. And with the shared global experience of the Corona Virus having become so revealing at how flawed and vulnerable our current systems are (the narrative of capitalism) that I look forward to Adam Curtis's next documentary and his updated understanding of the world.
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