much food for thought: our selves and our societies

"Are Animals and Humans the Same?" @ Womanist Musings
(cross-posted at Feministe, with lots of discussion there as well:
- watch for some amazing comments by bfp, who's got to have developed the most nuanced, yet clear analysis of the "a.r. as part of social justice" problem that one can find anywhere;
- while the position and discourse adopted by "ARPhilo" - the know-it-all, holier-than-thou, totally blind to other points of view, individual choice-based organizing kind - provides a perfect illustration of the type of approach that works against the "interconnectedness of animal and human liberation" even as it preaches this interconnectedness: not quite PeTA, but in effect PeTA-like... i understand the frustration and the "defensiveness," but, sometimes, a statement such as "... I will be a devoted speciesist" has to be understood in all its contextuality and complexity, rather than reacted to with single-minded righteousness: if you can't do that, you don't get it all, and you might as well give up communicating with your fellow humans and stop worrying about all of our liberations right now!)

& The Century of the Self - The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires

Part 1: Happiness Machines
Part 2: The Engineering of Consent
Part 3: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed
Part 4: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

"To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?" (via)

"Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings. His influence on the twentieth century is generally considered profound. The series describes the ways public relations and politicians have utilized Freud's theories during the last 100 years for the "engineering of consent".

Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in public relations, are discussed. Freud's daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as is one of the main opponents of Freud's theories, Wilhelm Reich, in the third part.

Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.

The business and, increasingly, the political world uses psychological techniques to read and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process was about engaging people's rational, conscious minds, as well as facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population." (via)

for more info and better watching options, see
"The Century of the Self" @ informationliberation

some of the analysis in "the century of the self" made me think of two older posts ("human rights. ...and by "humans" i mean me!" and "more adbusters - betty friedan, feminism and the right"), and especially this quote that i find particularly insightful (and very current):

"Public rights have been replaced by personal choices. Don't have a right to clean air, pure water and a future for you children? Then choose composting, recycling and growing your own veggies organically. Worked out that having it all - a career and family - isn't all it's cracked up to be? Then take your right to choose, give up that career and stay at home with the kids, the cost of childcare was killing you anyway. Black? Then you'll probably "choose" a second-rate education, exponentially higher exposure to violent crime and a diet that will make you sick. And while you're at it why not settle in the poorest, nastiest ward of New Orleans? Go ahead, it's your choice. This reframing of the debate, to cripple the very power of a movement by shaking it down from masses in search of a universal right to individuals with private decisions to take, was a masterstroke by the Right, because if you pit the little guy against an institution the institution will always win.

We stopped working together for reform and are now being forced to conform, dying deaths of a thousand choices. But it's not too late. In the words of Roberta Lynch, 'Movements do not simply get born, flourish and die. They go forward and are beaten back. They retreat, regroup and advance again.'"