thanks for the videos, hmlt. I was totally unaware of Adam Curtis. I found them immensley interesting.
A few points
TPON - re: the Straussians. Having watched the film I would say that the Straussians are given a completely fair assessment.
Century of the Self & The Trap
I really liked these. As some people pointed out, the story left out certain areas.
I think The Trap would have benefitted from some discussion of the rise of central banking, fiat currency, and the effect of the US dropping the gold standard in 1972.
I think it is key to recognize that the American dollar went from being something that could be redeemed from the world's largest gold reserves, to, by the sixties, a peice of paper branded "America" that was backed by nothing since the gold had mostly been sold off after the war. American economic policy since then has been more or less a PR campaign to buoy the dollar at all costs.
Ever since 1972 the Fed has responded to every economic problem by creating money out of nothing (also known as lowering interest rates) and causing speculation bubbles. But printing money doesn't create value, unless one were under the delusion that the paper money and dollar figures held intrinsic value (Wiemar Republic). Widespread market delusions are called bubbles, and we are nearing the end of the "US Dollar Bubble". Real estate, stocks, consumer credit in the 80's, dot coms in the 90's, and real estate again in the 2000's. Every bubble burst has been offset by new US Dollars being created, poured in and filling up another bubble. The whole thing has been supported by the widespread belief that, as the new world reserve currency, the US dollar obeyed no known economic laws and could never radically depreciate, no matter how badly debased. The long-term continual debasement of Roman silver coins (the closest historical precendent for the American dollar) is a classic example of the hopeless strategy of currency manipulation that becomes an irresistable temptation for rulers of a decaying empire who enjoy a trusted, almost monolithic currency that comes to reflect the power of the state rather than the value generated by the members of the state. This strategy is effective in the short term, but always disastrous in the long-term. The invisible hand smacks it back into place, painfully.
Since 1972 the American economy (and by extension the world economy) has been based on the fantasies of the the Federal Reserve. If you look at thier current statements re: the sub-prime mortgage meltdown + foreclosure crisis, it is clear how far the chasm between economic reality and the world of the Federal Reserve has widened. It has even led to Orwellian doublespeak on Wall Street like "Trade account deficits are good because they cause capital account surpluses". The problem is that capital account surplus is really another word for debt. The social security "trust fund" that is actually a chest full of IOU's (bonds) written by the American government to itself is just another example of the way in which American leaders came to believe that the American dollar had otherworldly properties that did not obey the laws of logic.
This view is unravelling by the day. Some economists are forecasting a dollar depreciation of 30-50% within the next ten years. Others like Peter Schiff of CNBC are forecasting an outright economic collapse (due in part to the impending bankruptcy of publicly backed lenders Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac) and a possible return to gold as the world reserve currency. Even grandpa buy-and-hold Warren Buffett has warned that the trade deficit is unsustainable, the dollar will depreciate, and therefore he is for the first time in his career buying overseas and exiting the american market.
The problem is that the US Dollar has pretty much inflated the world economy at this point, and everyone has exposure to it. I read one report of a NY real estate agent who has sold his 15 million dollar upper eestside house and is moving to China. Even after moving all of his assets to China at an optimal time when the dollar is still high and the yuan is artificially low, he still expects to lose 30-40% of his net worth in the coming recession.
I guess my point would be that the monetary gains that made the selfishness Curtis identifies possible and prevalent have themselves been largely illusory in a very real economic sense. Americans could never actually afford that second wave of individualized consumerism, it was funded by abandoning Bretton Woods and unhinging the dollar from real-world valuations - resulting in the stagflation of the 70's. I think a lot of the chaos that Curtis attibutes to the markets is more so a function of the last 50 years of fantasy based monetary policy (and the rampant speculation it engenders), mainly on the part of the Federal Reserve and Alan Greenspan. Personally I'm worried that the US will turn to military fascism when the money is all dried up.