Adam Curtis: "What you need is a powerful vision of the future"

December 12, 2016

Chapo Trap House: Episode 65 - No Future feat. Adam Curtis (2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZypbVJ16Jk&t=45m57s
https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/episode-65-no-future-feat-adam-curtis-121216 @ 45:57

Burial: Forgive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB3z4ibHSbE

Transcript:
You asked what real change might look like. And I think it's a really I mean, that is a really interesting question for liberals and radicals because there is a hunger for change out there among millions of people who feel sort of insecure and uncertain about the future and do one something, do want that change.
I think that change only comes through a big imaginative idea, a sort of picture of another kind of future, which gives people a sense, 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 that they are always suspicious of big ideas. That's what lurks underneath the liberal mindset. And the reason is quite right, in a way. Look what happened last time when millions of people got swept up in a big idea, look at the last hundred years of what happened in Russia, and then in Germany. The point is, is that change, political change, is frightening. It's scary.
It's thrilling, because it is dynamic and it's doing something to change the world, but it is scary, because it can change things in ways where nothing is secure. It's like being in an earthquake: even the solid ground underneath you begins to move and things dissolve that you think are solid and real.
And I think that the question liberals and the left have to face at the moment is a really such a 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. I mean, what we're talking about, in many cases is people who are sort of at the center of society at the moment; they're not out on 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, say, 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 your 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 want to 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 absolutely 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 that you really don't want. So what I think, I mean, in answer to your question, hat you need is a powerful vision of the future--with all it's dangers. But it's also quite thrilling. It will be an escape from the staticness of the world that 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, in confronting those powers and trying to transform the world, you might lose a lot.
This is a sort of forgotten idea, [which] is that actually you surrender yourself up to a big idea. And in the process, you might lose something, but you'd actually gain in a bigger sense, because you've changed the world for the better. I know it sounds soppy, but sort of this is the forgotten thing about politics, which 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 an answer to your question is, 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 than themselves. And at the moment, there is nothing like that in the liberal imagination.

Adam Curtis Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAWxZyfEPejhGJv8Z4wbKBw/videos

Adam Buxton: EP.44 - ADAM CURTIS (2017)
https://soundcloud.com/adam-buxton/podcast-ep44-adam-curtis

Talkhouse: Tim Heidecker with Adam Curtis (2017)
https://soundcloud.com/thetalkhouse/tim-heidecker-with-adam-curtis

Russell Brand & Adam Curtis - Do We Really Want Change? (2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBy08P7tHPQ

The antidote to civilisational collapse: An interview with the documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis (2018)
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/12/06/the-antidote-to-civilisational-collapse

Adam Curtis:
Individualism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM6u6H0BlJs&t=5s
Changing the World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM6u6H0BlJs&t=2m37s
A Vision of the Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM6u6H0BlJs&t=4m56s

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