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"Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares." - Introduction, The Power of Nightmares

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3


Can always rely on BBC to provide an excellent, in-depth documentary. This one is particularly interesting and pertinent, taking the viewer on a journey to explore the origins and rise of American neo-conservatism as well as its current implacable enemy, the Islamist movement. You may find the similarities between the two startling.

You might also find yourself agreeing that it is a world of fear we now live in, and governments are feeding off this fear. Our government does it - remember the fuss about the Yishun MRT video, the arrests of JI members and the portrayal of Jemaah Islamiah as an efficient, well-run terror machine with tentacles all over Southeast Asia? Even now, with the videos at every single MRT station of what one should do in the event of a bomb on the train (planted, stereotypically, by a Malay-looking man with a cap pulled low over his head, and rather amateurishly too) and the very visible sight of Transit Security and PMU (Police MRT Unit) men around the gantries, the climate of fear is being encouraged, rather than dispelled.

Is it not the duty of a government to make its people feel safe? To reassure them of any illusory threats, and to guarantee that any real ones will be immediately dealt with in a systematic and calm manner? To say, "There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of; we are safe." Instead, governments all over the world are doing exactly the opposite - and ironically, this can only increase the danger, the impact, of a real attack.

Watch it. It is really good.