Synopsis

THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES

The Rise of the Politics of Fear


This is a series of documentary films about how fear has come to dominate politics in America, Britain and around the world – and that much of that fear is based on an illusion.

The films tell the story of the rise of today’s nightmare vision of a hidden, organised network of terror and show clearly how much of that threat has been distorted and exaggerated by politicians.

In an age disillusioned with optimistic political visions of the future, politicians have stumbled on a new force that can restore their power and authority – the fear of a hidden and organised web of evil which they can protect their people from.

These films show how that fantasy was created – and why – by telling an epic story that starts in America in 1949 and ends in the present day. At the heart of the story are two groups – the American Neoconservatives and the Radical Islamists. Both these groups were idealists born out of the failure of the post-war liberal optimism, and both had very similar explanations for why that failure had occurred.

Both groups did change the world – but not in the way either intended. Their actions over the last thirty years have led to today’s strange fantasy of fear which has spread through all levels of government, the security services and the international media.

A fantasy that no-one questions because those with the darkest nightmares have become the most powerful.




FILM ONE – BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE

It begins in 1949 with two men in America. One was an Egyptian school inspector called Sayyid Qutb – his ideas would directly inspire those who flew the planes on the attack of September 11th.

The other was an obscure political philosopher – Leo Strauss. His ideas would be one of the main influences on the Neoconservative movement that now dominates Washington

Both men believed that modern liberal freedoms were eroding the bonds that held society together.

In the 1