The Lonely Robot

That was the subtitle of the second part of Adam Curtis’ new series on BBC2. Another hour of exposition of theory illuminated (mostly) by a dense weave of archive footage. This second part struck me as being somewhat easier to grasp than the first, but it’s still tough going for me. Still, I shouldn’t complain at having something on the telly that deserves to be well-chewed and savoured. It makes a welcome change from the usual diet of pap.

 

There were some good moments in it. I screamed an obscenity at the point in the interview with James Buchanan, when Curtis poses the question to him on whether some politicians could act out of idealism. Buchanan’s point of view is that politicians and bureaucrats are self-serving and that public duty is a myth – it is impossible for them to interpret and express the general will of the people. Buchanan’s reply to Curtis was one of puzzlement and denial that idealism could ever exist – a "it does not compute" reaction. My scream was powered by the certain and personal knowledge of one politician – my father – who certainly was never self-serving, and went into politics out of a sense of duty. He may well have been a rare bird, and perhaps these days his breed is even rarer, but for Buchanan to deny even the possibility of the existence of such a species was too much for me. 

 

Not Saussure and Fixed Point have more, much more, in-depth analysis on The Lonely Robot. Recommended reading.