Adam Curtis and the Power of Themes

Conspiracy theories resonate when you read them because they make sense. They appeal to a natural desire to arrange the world in some kind of pattern, to derive order from the chaotic array of ideas that one is presented with every day. When nations or the politicians who run them behave in a manner that we experience as dangerous and hurtful it is easy to believe that a secret order is behind things, that a cabal exists and seeks to move the larger world to suit its own needs, regardless of your own, individual life.

Consider instead that maybe this is the opposite of what is occurring. That maybe the powerful elements in our society are actually doing their best, promoting your greatest interests using the grand levers that are before them as leaders of governments, nations and societies. Maybe also it is not the politicians themselves who scheme but instead cultural arbiters who have the real influence - philosophers, scientists and artists - each laboring and devising new ways to view human society and speaking openly to an audience of the open-minded.

Next consider that our present world is the direct result of these efforts to create a more ordered society, a better adjusted culture and a happier individual. This is the world of Adam Curtis.

Adam Curtis is a BBC Documentarian. Since the mid-1990's he has worked to illustrate how our modern society has resulted from deliberate efforts and their largely unanticipated consequences. He uses arching themes, archival footage and historical patterns to illuminate the way in which ideas have been hatched by creative individual thinkers and then adapted by political and business leaders to create not just the societies we live in but also the people themselves, their views on potential and the limits on their awareness of alternatives.

Familiarity with the ideas explored b Adam Curtis is essential in understanding the recent history of the world you inhabit and the intellectual framework in which your own views on it happen to exist. Guaranteed to enlighten and entertain.

The best place to start is with 2002's The Century of the Self, an exploration of how the ideas of Sigmund Freud were adapted by his nephew to found the Public Relations industry:

The Century of the Self
(four parts)

The most recent major release is 2007's The Trap and is a three-part exploration of our concept of political freedom and the philosophical underpinnings used to increase it by our recent political leaders. It is available online here:

The Trap
(three parts)

Another essential work is 2004's The Power of Nightmares which is an exploration of the shared foundation of Neo-Conservative ideology as well as modern fundamentalist Islam.

The Power of Nightmares
(three parts)




Editor's note: The Illogical Contraption Posse (ICP for short) would like to take a moment to welcome back The Heckler, whose endearing bitterness and sarcasm has been absent from these hallowed pages for over 8 months. As it turns out, he wasn't actually "gone" at all, but merely locked inside the janitor's closet here at ICHQ, perfectly content absorbing the works of David Icke and constructing pipe bombs out of toilet paper rolls, sewing kits, and laundry detergent. Who knew?

The Joy of a Wedding

There is nothing more beautiful than the coming together of two deserving people. To mark this key milestone in all our lives our society has crafted its greatest tradition, the wedding. Weddings are the perfect representation of the love two people feel for each other. Each small detail of the traditional wedding ceremony is perfectly placed to represent one or another aspect of the bride and groom's future lives together. Beyond that it provides a true merging of families and friends and larger social circles. To me, there is nothing more beautiful than the after-party reception where everyone boogies down together, laughing giddy like children and showing off their stuff. It is in these moments that we feel most alive as human beings, most connected with our friends and family and our god.

While all weddings are inherently grand and beautiful there are sometimes those that take it a step beyond, where mere tradition is improved upon with spectacle and sublime performance. This serves to draw the guests in even closer to the sacred love being shared by the betrothed-to-be. There are many great examples of crazy and outrageous wedding dances and surprises out there in YouTube land but there is one in particular that has this week caught the nation's attention. I have linked it here below so our dear and loyal readers at Illogical Contraption don't miss out on this cultural landmark. The video takes about twenty seconds to really get going so please, be patient, and soon you will be crying tears of joy from the deepest corners of your metal hearts. You are welcome in advance.

Life at it's most beautiful

Eureka Summed Up In One Screenshot

This blog's head writer (head) frequently goes on about Eureka (and how much it sucks or whatever). This is interesting to the nineteen readers who are all also from Eureka but for the great unwashed masses out there who don't understand I offer this screenshot with detailed analysis below:



We'll do this top-to-bottom:

1. Weather. It's May 14 and the high is 62 and the low is 48. That's pretty cold. It's also an accurate weather forecast for every single other day of the year. The local weather guy used to do a bit called "3 Degree Guarantee" where he'd guess the temperature and give somebody money if he wasn't within 3 degrees of the actual high temperature for that day. This weather man was a drunken idiot, like most of them, and he still got it right every day. Why? Because it's easy when the total range of possible temperatures is around 8 degrees for the entire year.

Alternate Position: Some find Eureka a charming and comfortable place to live due to this highly predictable and rather mild climate.

2. The Times-Standard. It's the worst paper in America. Every 20 years or so they attract good reporters and cover real news. Then they fire all those people (who go on to glorious careers editing major papers throughout the US) and replace them with a roomful of inbreds (Eureka natives). Check out the quality writing on this blurb. Bad sentences, fear of using words longer than one syllable, massively hilarious typo. Nevermind that on that same day there was surely something more newsworthy than this Wednesday night discussion of maybe, possible budget cuts.

Alternate Position: You can do all kinds of fucked up shit and it'll never make the paper.

3. Pathetic smallness. Yes, the proposed budget cuts may save $3. You know your city is too fucking small when you discuss budget numbers that are less than the amount of money in my car's ashtray.

Alternate Position: Fuckin' awesome, the cop budget is like $20. Let's drink in public and sell weed out of drive-throughs.

For added amusement I suggest visiting http://www.times-standard.com to take a virtual stroll through Eureka, California. Sorry about the pop-ups.

Beyond The Drummer For Def Leppard

by The Heckler

I can imagine few things more unsettling than to lose a limb. No matter how awesome your severed-limb story you're still left with a stump, limited mobility and the confused-neurons that leave a phantom sensation of your lost appendage. Nevertheless, a man is defined more by how he reacts to adversity than by his experience of it, so should you find yourself in this predicament, consider your options.

You could get an awesome tattoo to scare kids with:

Or you could try and use it to gain an advantage in sports:

Another option is to get an awesome bionic arm like these AILF's did:

Some wacky people even use it as an opportunity to advance the world by say, becoming a mermaid:

...or comissioning an Eames-inspired prosthetic leg to one-up the christian god:

Some people try to advance science, like these cyclops who are trying to get camera's to fill their empty eye cavities:

The Eyeborg Project

Eye, Tanya

Or this douche, who got a fucking USB-drive in his finger, which is like having an 8-track player installed into the dash of your '57 Rolls Royce:

I think embracing your reality and having some fun with it is also a good idea:

If you do go with a prosthetic, don't be embarassed. They've been around forever:

...and even the animal kingdom has been enriched by the loss of a limb:

Then again, there is a wrong way to do it:

Whatever you end up doing, make sure to take a moment and appreciate that there's something you can do that everyone else in the room usually can't.



Unless you're the drummer for Def Leppard, in which case you could really use that other arm.

Editors Note: Charles T Heckler is currently in posession of all of his limbs, rock!

Alternate Forks of Metal

Speaking of the late 80's/early 90's, here's an awful "metal" video from T-Ride for their hit epic "Backdoor Romeo." No, this not one of those shred videos.

Let's all thank the heshers and greaseballs of America for not taking this direction for the past 20 years

Your Childhood Was Whack - Part 1

By The Heckler

When you were a kid in the 80's rocking Raffi tapes or listening to spandex metal with your loser big brother there was an entire world going on that you missed out on because you are whack.  I am extremely bored by your weak 80's nostalgia and its reflection of an idyllic middle class and their toys, cartoons and cheesy outfits.  You were holding hands and making volcano's in 4th grade while I lived in tha ghetto, where my friends got scooters for being drug lookouts, wild packs of dogs would sometimes run through your yard, you'd get bag-snatched on Halloween or jumped on your way to school for your bus pass.

Consider this Part 1 of an utter dismantling of your pathetic childhood.

Exhibit A:

This was a hit song in my neighborhood.  Why? Because it was some mean-ass shit to say to someone, seeing's how it was true and all.  Check these guys out, taunting little girls about their crackhead hooker mom's.  That's some shit!

Exhibit B:

Now that was some sweet and innocent shit when your little sister got one.  Unfortunately for her it got stolen and one of my friends parents bought it, but it had no tape of the pre-recorded, soothing voice of Teddy Ruxpin, and the only tape we had was this:

Exhibit C:

Garbage Pail Kids were just stickers for boys. Even the girls in my neighborhood were into tougher shit than that, such as collecting Yo MTV Raps! cards for BWP, aka Bitches With Pride