THE BLACK PACKET
Explore thought-provoking documentaries that challenge conventional narratives.
From technology and hacking to societal manipulation and hidden truths.
The Century Of The Self - 1 Of 4 - Happiness Machines
The first episode of the series introduces us to Edward Bernuys, Sigmund Freud's American nephew, and his groundbreaking ideas on population control.
The Century Of The Self - 2 Of 4 - The Engineering Of Consent
The film explains how, by appealing to irrational desires and fears, these figures developed techniques to make people want new products and support specific political ideas, thereby creating a new consumer culture and a new form of control in a mass democracy.
The Century Of The Self - 3 Of 4 - There Is Policemen Inside All Our Heads He Must Be Destroyed
Examines how the counter-culture movements of the 1960s and 70s, reacting to the control exerted by the state and corporations, turned inward and began to focus on psychological and personal liberation rather than political revolution. The title reflects the idea that this movement believed liberation could be achieved by dismantling the internal controls—the "policeman"—that society had implanted in people's minds.
The Century Of The Self - 4 Of 4 - Eight People Sipping Wine
Examines how Edward Bernays' techniques of reading the inner desires of consumers was applied to politics during the 1980s and 90s in Britain and the United States. Bill Clinton's tax increases in his first term led to his losing the Congress in mid-term elections and threatened his re-election. To win back support he decided to adopt a political strategy focusing on the business principles of individualistic consumerism rather than leftist ideology. The approach focused to the personal concerns of swing voters that appealed to their desires, and using focus groups to discover what Americans really wanted from the government. The Labour party in Britain adopted a similar approach, utilizing focus groups of swing voters, which resulted in the election of Tony Blair in 1997. It was seen as a triumph of a new form of democracy - "consumer democracy" - that prioritized fulfilling the desires of individuals and not treating the public as a faceless ideological bloc.
All Governments Lie
Giant media conglomerates are increasingly reluctant to investigate or criticize government policies, particularly on defense, security and intelligence issues. They are ceding responsibility for holding governments and corporations accountable to the independent journalists and filmmakers who risk their careers, their freedom and their lives in war zones to expose the truth. With government deception rampant, independent voices are crucially important.
Militainment Inc - The Militarization Of Pop Culture
Militainment, Inc. offers a fascinating, disturbing, and timely glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and “reality television” in its glamorization of war. Mobilizing an astonishing range of media examples - from news anchors’ idolatry of military machinery to the impact of government propaganda on war reporting - the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle? And how does presenting war as entertainment affect the ability of citizens to evaluate the necessity and real human costs of military action?
Out Of Shadows
An exposé on how Hollywood and the mainstream media manipulate the multitudes by spreading propaganda throughout their content.
The Minds Of Men
During the Cold War, CIA Director Allen Dulles launched a classified mind control program, sparking decades of social engineering experiments that shaped modern psychological operations and human behavior research.
Propaganda And The CFR Behind The Big News
The executives, the editors in print media, the senior producers, executive producers in the visual media – these are the people who have the ideological bias and what’s probably almost as important – their personal friendships. They go to the same country clubs, they go to the same dinners, they socialize with a lot of the people that they cover.The mainstream news media, while Americans rely on it daily for the latest reports on world and domestic events, a recent study conducted by the Cronkite School of Journalism indicates that nearly 67% of Americans don’t trust major media for accurate reporting.