Subconscious War

Subconscious War

2011, Conspiracy  -   87 Comments
8.55
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Ratings: 8.55/10 from 393 users.

Subconscious War is a short documentary detailing the impact of media and the culture of violence on the everyday life, and the development of the common principles in society. The film analyzes the works of Aldous Huxley and Neil Postman's hopeless judgments; relating the ideas of pieces such as 'Brave New World' and 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' to the momentary cultural values that promote the corporate media saturation, games, television, and the extensive technoculture.

In the 'Brave New World' most of the people are united under one World State, an everlasting, serene, fixed, worldwide society in which there is abundance (the number of people is constantly controlled) and all are satisfied. To keep up with the World State's economy, all people are trained from young age to appreciate consumption, because non-stop consumption and universal employment are the basis of economic and social balance for the World State.

Being alone is labeled as a scandalous waste of resources and wanting to be alone is terrible. Society makes people to promote consumption and never to enjoy as being an individual. People die at age 60 having a good health for their whole life. Nobody is afraid of death; anyone thinking of it is assured that what counts is that society goes on. Reproduction is artificial, no one has family, so they have no family to mourn.

In the 'Amusing Ourselves to Death', Postman argues that mass communication media is unable to share serious ideas. Since television virtually replaced the written word, television replaces serious issues with humiliating and subversive political dialog and turns important and complicated issues into depthless flashy images... it is just entertainment. Television can't provide education, as it supports only one way information circulation, rather than the interaction that is necessary to for proper learning.

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oldandjaded
oldandjaded
4 years ago

God, that was painful. Nothing new here, but it's presented so coherently, and it really connects on an emotional level. I have a child, and I have done my best to insulate her from the omnipresent neuro-linguistic programming that we as a society are immersed in, and I have been fairly successful. We talk about Edward Bernays and Gustave LeBon, we talk about post-modernism, we talk about the addiction to personal electronics and their dual use as tools of both thought monitoring and thought control. Most of the children in her school already have their own phones, and she complains to me that its getting harder to find other children to talk to, as they are so immersed in them. The children in her class ask her why she doesn't play video games, or use facebook, why she "talks funny" and uses so many "big words", and why she reads so much. I can barely type this without tearing up. We are the outliers. I fear there is very little hope. I think it is highly unlikely that they will not triumph over us, and soon.

Bryan
Bryan
4 years ago

great topic, and sad ,worth the watch for sure , that's why JA is still locked up is'nt it ,? for exposing the fact's, too many people,

Dipesh
Dipesh
4 years ago

---"Protect your spirits. Spirits get eaten nowadays"

Murat
Murat
4 years ago

:et us not forget , WAR is a political word for MURDER

john
john
6 years ago

Oh yeah and Obama turned out to be a major scum bag.

john
john
6 years ago

Yeah baby. Humanity is basically evil either active or complicit with a few notable exceptions.
The Orwellian nightmare started long before 1984. Violence is nature in all her glory and humans like it.

Lajaj
Lajaj
7 years ago

Only me that noticed the picture from the cover is from arma 3?

Anthony Forwood
Anthony Forwood
8 years ago

This documentary could have been a whole lot better. The message it presented is already an old one, as the many clips they used reveals. I expected a little more shock effect to wake the viewer up and keep him/her awake. My interest was lost about a 1/4 the way in, but I struggled through to the end.

We have to realize that the media is an unnatural invasion on our lives that we need to e more in control of, and that means taking that control away from the 5 ig media moguls that exist today.

Jarad
Jarad
8 years ago

"Protect your spirit. You're in the place where spirits get eaten." Great words to sum it up and describe the world we live in.

Kay Moua
Kay Moua
8 years ago

The purpose of this film as I see it has two purposes, one for the children who are playing these games and the soldiers who actually go out into the war and see these acts first hand; then lastly technology which is easily accessible. In the film one of the interviewers also said “Manipulating the mind with reality and what’s not reality; our intelligence.” I believe that what we see and look up on the internet as well as the games that we play, have an influence on what we learn and our daily lives. I know people who divorce because one of the spouses is always playing games and not getting things done. We see and hear what happens on the news when people try to do the things that they see on games, and on television. To be it’s so sad because they only see what happens but they don’t get to see the consequence of that has been done. Violence has influenced the younger and younger generations.

10incharound
10incharound
8 years ago

I have a question to any one who sees this. How suggestible are you? Do you believe rather than think. I used to think, then I believed, and now I think again. Do you live in a virtual reality? Well if we live are lives through movies, television, music, and the internet (don't get caught in the net) isn't that a kind of virtual reality. Tell-a-vision but you have to wonder who's vision are they telling because it sure isn't mine of a perfect utopia not that there would ever be one. Aldous huxleys interview w/ mike wallace also talks about suggestibility and also cocaine use on mice, very interesting interview with a very intelligent man.

Caleb Webber
Caleb Webber
8 years ago

Will definitely share with others. Thank you for this.

RBM
RBM
9 years ago

'Protect your soul.' That is what I took away from this piece and what I think made it better than it would have otherwise been. I liked the contrasting of the ideas of Orwell and Huxley, but this wasn't enough to carry the rest of the film, which was a collection of images and political commentary that didn't offer anything new or illuminating. And yes, earlier commenter, I agree, the muzak is unnecessary at best.

Simon DW
Simon DW
9 years ago

aimed at the 90's brain and a crap attempt to blame pop music and video games, i think my nan made it?!

Richard Neva
Richard Neva
9 years ago

As you reap so shall you sow.

fleshbug02
fleshbug02
9 years ago

As it is being "Reviewed" by the audience below, I do ascertain the actual force of the truth is being ignored, or more like not realized due to a complete dis-integration of the human capacity to discern external reality from the internalized imagination. Those commenting here, seem to feel, as apposed to think, that this is just another video game plot. It is not. It is going to become even more vial, more rotten, disgusting, and much more evil, for that is the design of this destruction. And the masses of braindead fools are doing it to themselves.
File this statement under 'IGNORE". That seems to be the largest file there is present;y. Lol.

Eric Lawson
Eric Lawson
9 years ago

Great Doc Thoroughly enjoyed it !!!

Richard Neva
Richard Neva
9 years ago

Pretty damn sad

stampece
stampece
10 years ago

This is not a documentary film. It's just a collection of video clips. Someone selected some clips and put them together in an attempt to infer some correlations, but no such correlations can be established by merely selecting various clips and sticking them together. If the person who assembled this is trying to suggest that the violent aspects of human nature are more present in political institutions, technology, or militaries than in the absence of those things, that's just patently false, and history bears out that that's false. If he or she is implying that basic human nature is the problem, then the very specific references included are not particularly useful.

Lauriesheri
Lauriesheri
10 years ago

If there is a hell, those low-life maggots of the U.S. military will be condemned to it for all eternity. And that includes Ethan

awful_truth
awful_truth
10 years ago

Another great short doc exposing the evil that permeates humanity at the core. Imagine the possibilities if a very high percentage of the population really understood the implications of our actions; Yes, imagine if evil (exploitation of inequity) was put underfoot where it belonged, instead of running the planet? I can dream, can't I?

kafka11
kafka11
10 years ago

great stuff, Huxley was on the money, did he have a crystal ball,,genius!

jaberwokky
jaberwokky
10 years ago

I remember flipping through a Playboy magazine ( for the articles ... of course ... ahem ) back around either xmas 2000 or 2001. The particular issue had a special xmas spread which tracked some historic moments of prediction as part of its celebration. One of these moments was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. The text gloatingly proclaimed how wrong he had been and was accompanied by a suitably lambasting caricature. At the time I had not yet read Brave New World but the gauntlet had been thrown down with those bold words and my interest had been piqued so I set about my duties. After I finished reading Huxley's masterpiece and had some time to reflect I found that the thing which struck me most, and which my mind still returns to, was how ironic it was for Playboy to have made that assertion.

My .02.

Edit: Maybe the moral of my little story is that if you're reading Playboy for the articles then you're doing it wrong ;)

David Faubion
David Faubion
10 years ago

The constant muzak in this video seems too loud, even unnecessary. The muzak distracts and obscures, in an ironic sense, the valuable words of solutions oriented scholars/ artists. Perhaps the idea of this loud, constant drone is as an allegory of the popular culture being exposed in the doc for what much of it is: poisonous distraction. The documentary would be more coherent and credible with the muzak volume circa 50%. Better yet, make a version with no muzak at all because the critical ideas and seminal thinking here are just too valuable. Maybe then the documentary would be worth the enduring of the hellish scenes--more than once. The audience at Top Docs likely would rather hear Huxley, John Trudeau, Noam and McLuhan --unaccompanied by and competing with an over-loud, subjective electronic synthesizer. Those hearty scholars need no accompaniment, and they need us to hear, even commit to memory their words and ideas. In a sense, this documentary gives us a mixed message about the media and info consumption crisis. The doc uses a similar sort of sensationalism that we see and hear in mass-media drowning out the voice(s) of reason.

Horst Manure
Horst Manure
10 years ago

Search online for War is a Racket...

papaval
papaval
10 years ago

Show us more of this Nazi memorabilia collection. Entertainment is now used to take away our sensibility to violence, Technology is not evil; concepts, religions, tools and words aren't either. War is a seductive pathology that's part of us: we can reflect and raise our consciousness to higher levels beyond our reptile brain. Please don't forget Bradley Manning! War is America's main industry. America could actually be a proud nation. The truth can lay within a thorough investigation. In the male dominated institutions, such as sports, politics and the military, comparisons to being anything female becomes the ultimate insult. The fact that we are being spied on regularly has been common knowledge since the passage of the Patriot Act.This is a very powerful documentary that shows the cruelties and deceptions of our civilization, and the kind of human beings we are on our way to becoming if we fail to act and to resist the prevailing ideology, or any ideology? if we do not want to become non-humans, non-beings - a civilization were we no longer believe in anything or feel anything,

Gabriel Forbes
Gabriel Forbes
10 years ago

Very good video. Though I agreed with the fact that entertainment is now used to take away our sensibility to violence, please, let's not succumb to fear and blame it all on art and entertainment, but on those who use art and entertainment to vile ends. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is one of many videogames that are part of it, but not ALL videogames are insensitive violent piece of brainwashing entertainment.
Technology is not evil; concepts, religions, tools and words aren't either. But as humans can use those to evolve, flourish and make the conscious choice of working for the universal peace, there are those sadly corrupted by our body's needs and the illusion of reality that is the physical boundaries.
I liked this video but I'd be sad to see it used to but a blanket blame and hate on everything that has to do with entertainment.

L Swift Palmer
L Swift Palmer
10 years ago

A film with some valuable insights. War is a seductive pathology that's part of us: strange animals we be. 97% of our time on earth we've enjoyed warfare. Yet consciousness is evolving so that we can reflect and raise our consciousness to higher levels beyond our reptile brain. If not, we'll join the extinction list and earth will return to its microbial balance without us. We have a modicum of choice: good news and bad news.

ChairmanDrew
ChairmanDrew
10 years ago

another youtube copy+paste compilation "documentary".

~Oliver B Koslik Esq
~Oliver B Koslik Esq
10 years ago

Q: Who pulled the trigger on that 30mm cannon that took out a bunch of civilians and kids?

A: I did... we all did... in the same thought & notion that: Him and I (we) grew up on the same video games... the same tv shows, the same public schooling, the same Hollywood favorites & heroes. In the grand scheme of things... him and I have very very few differences.

But it is not my fault, just the same that it is not his fault.

Why was He there? What was the greater purpose of that gunship floating around their skies?

~ Who turned Who, against Who? ~

...Really it doesn't matter, nobody is truly at fault. We are just -still- at a point in time where circumstantial victimization is the pinnacle of non volitional influence. We have yet to evolve past that rational.

With religion, and the class wars that come from that. That lead to violence, and the distraction from poverty, hunger, and education. Its a vicious furry of hate and angst that conditions the distractions necessary to brainwash the "desired" mentalities.

We have quite the web... to not dismantle, not destroy, but to re-connect; synchronously & cooperatively.

Excellent Doc!
Thx!
+1

watchtheduck
watchtheduck
10 years ago

Please don't forget Bradley Manning, who has been locked away for 35 years in a military prison for exposing the horrific events of the video footage because of being a man of conscience. He was truly heroic by acting on his conscience and has paid a high price. Read more of my comments below about how reprehensibly he was treated for exposing this horrible blot on American history.

gnarliman
gnarliman
10 years ago

NOT a waste of 30 minutes.

fewoptions
fewoptions
10 years ago

unfortunally tv/news these days is more opinion or has agenda than actual facts. its used as a means of getting ppl to fit in line and to think a certain way. if you don't agree as bush would say your against us. hardly what u can call freedom of speech which is what I presume americans think they have....... from day 1 I said the Iraq invasion was wrong, (my friends thought I was mad as I said it was based on lies and zero facts)none of my friends agreed at the time I wonder if they still believe the hype and bs. we all know now that it had nothing to do with 911 just wanted excuse to steal Iraqi oil and use there weapons on innocent ppl. war is Americas main industry, the gov has to feed the industry by invading countries that can hardly protect themselfs. uk gov fed the same bs here! what was the headline again IRAQ HAS MISSLES THAT CAN HIT UK IN 45MINS(completely false), this was the gov bs they feed us to create panic. turns out that gov used a college students essay to scare everyone. it was all made up BS. another great doc from tdf that helps ppl to wake up (I hope)! don't believe what the media say do your own investigating and you always find eventually a hidden truth that the media just seems to miss or just wants to ignore. I wish usa spent as much time and $$$ helping ppl rather than trying to kill them, then America could actually be a proud nation. we can only dream lol. lets hope for a more peaceful 2014!

watchtheduck
watchtheduck
10 years ago

As for the claim that after being convicted Bradley Manning wanted to become a woman known as Chelsea, it's not difficult for anyone who understands the "language" to comprehend that in male dominated institutions, such as sports, politics and the military, comparisons to being anything female becomes the ultimate insult. Though there are plenty of good examples, one of the more famous insults was when Arnold Schwarzenneger called his political opponents "girly men". Quoting from this video, when Ethan McCord went to the Staff Sargent asking for mental health services, he (Ethan) was told to "get the sand out of his vagina, and suck it up and be a soldier."

I don't buy into the media hype that portrayed Manning after he was led away to serve his sentence, as a mentally impaired man who from then on wanted to be known as Chelsea. To a keen observer, that photo of him in a ridiculously ugly blond wig, was a cut and paste job, meant to deliver the ultimate form of humiliation of the super macho against men who are perceived as weak or who go against the grain which is standing with the "brothers". I fear for Manning in that military prison. I fear that they will indeed shoot him full of female hormones, not because that's what he truly wants, but because it would be the ultimate and most extreme form of punishment, and there would be nothing he could do about it in a military prison.

watchtheduck
watchtheduck
10 years ago

Let's not forget that the man who exposed this travesty, Bradley Manning, has been convicted and locked away in a military prison for 35 years, while Edward Snowden, another whistleblower became a hero in the eyes of the public and has managed to remain free, though in another country. While Snowden's confessions really grabbed media and public attention, the fact that we were being spied on regularly was already common knowledge since the passage of the Patriot Act. In light of how media is used to distract and lead the masses, ask yourself, why did the Snowden confession come at the very moment when Bradley Manning was going to trial, thereby shifting the public focus from Manning, to Snowden? At that same time, the media stopped referring to the trial as the Manning trial and started calling it the Wikileaks trial, a tactic that for many would have created a negative mental association with Julian Asange, who had also been villainized for exposing the humiliating truth.

a_no_n
a_no_n
10 years ago

lol, i love the idea of a documentary suggesting that tv can't be educational...the irony of it is absolutely hilarious.

Scartera
Scartera
10 years ago

I love technology and video games, on the call of duty level in the airport you don't have to pull the trigger at all to pass the level. seems like this doc just demonised technology as a whole most of the way through, no mention of the good things it does at all.

CapnCanard
CapnCanard
10 years ago

Excellent documentary... I like Neil Postman description of Huxley's idea that we need to "resist egoism and passivity". I implore everyone, please wake up!

Chul
Chul
10 years ago

Great Docu! share please!