All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
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- straightola0
This was fantastic, he did little atoms on resonance fm (on itunes too) and the rest of the series sounds like its going to get even better
- Horp0
I personally found it interesting but a little pedestrian. The basic "economic" facts he presented are well known to anyone with only half an ear to the global markets, and the stepping stones he took to link up that (the meat of the presentation) to the cultural background (the pastry and some spice) were at times tenuous and circumstantial. There was nothing in this programme that wasn't already known, it was merely an example of making reality an entertaining romp for the articulate middle masses.
It was a bit like a fun trawl through the wikipedia with some nice music and archive footage dropped on to add a superficial sense of satisfaction to the hungry viewer. McJournalism.
- Must try harder.Horp
- haha, quite— but McJournalism is what all those peeps who don't scour the recesses of the internet need..detritus
- Is there anyone left in the demographic this programme targets that doesn't trawl the internet though?Horp
- To that, I have no answer other than meek agreement and a typical concerns of confirmation bias and neuronal hardwiring.detritus
- fadein110
I agree with the above to a degree but I still like the fact the BBC commissions such work and although the journalism is pedestrian I think it is more a kind of documentation of our times - more of an impression than an attempt to do rigorous analysys. Stylistically its great and a nice aside to the shit that UK (and the worlds) TV broadcasts...
- GeorgesII0
so where can I stream this doc?
- Horp0
"I think it is more a kind of documentation of our times "
Beg to differ. The general thread of this documentary was that thanks to Ayn Rand, the world's economy is fucked.
The truth is, Ayn Rand was a bog eyed needy neurotic who suffered from a cult of personality and managed to gather a small following around her and her utterly flawed "philosophy". That philosophy amounted to little more than a single line idea of pre-pubescent construction. It can be argued that The Collective were a bunch of academics and intellectuals who went on to become major players in various areas of global development, or it could be argued that this was merely a gang of privileged individuals sucked into a sociopathic desire to hide away from the world in a Manhattan apartment in order to explore the playground of their home-constructed rationale. That they were empathetic to Rand's needy philosophy doesn't mean for one moment that Rand's philosophy (and I use the word with increasing reluctancy) influenced them. It merely suggests a correlation between their cerebral positioning and her own.
To claim that silicon valley was founded on "Randian principles" by citing company names and children's names as proof, and pointing out that many of silicon valleys founders were inspired by her novel would be like claiming vast swathes of modern business are the direct result of Spielberg and Lucas' cinematic efforts.
The two most significant companies in Silicon valley have no inspirational connection to Ayn Rand at all. Both cite Douglas Adams as a key inspiration and developmental figurehead after the fact of their inception (Microsoft and Apple), and Adams could not be more further from Rand in terms of ideology.
What happened to American economic policy was going to happen anyway. The seeds of it predate and also dwarf the influences of The Collective and the writings of Rand.
So whilst it can be viewed as harmless entertainment, I don't think it can be viewed as 'documentary' or even 'accurate' any more than a game of Six degrees of Kevin Bacon could be.
- Don't you even question the fact that Ayn Rand could find no single philosophical point of connection amongst the ...Horp
- legions of great philosophers who have lived over many thousands of years?Horp
- Does that not tell you something about the rigour of her own philosophical perspective?Horp
- Lets not get into her inability to maintain eye contact for more than a second.Horp
- "Harold Camping was a game changer in the world of billboard advertising"Horp