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The Power of Nightmares Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
3 Episodes 2004 - 2004
Episode 1
Baby It's Cold Outside
59 mins
How the illusory threat of a hidden network of terror has come to dominate politics throughout the world. Political philosopher Leo Strauss and Egyptian school inspector Sayyid Qutb both believed that liberalism eroded the bonds that held society together. The respective movements they inspired set out, in their different ways, to rescue their societies from this decay. But the public's growing disillusionment with politics led to US neoconservatives creating a hidden network of evil run by the Soviet Union, while Islamists turned to terror to enforce their message.
Episode 2
The Phantom Victory
59 mins
The US neoconservatives and the Islamists came together to fight the USSR in Afghanistan. Emboldened by the belief that they had then defeated the "Evil Empire", both groups tried to transform the world. Their subsequent failure was followed in the case of the neoconservatives by the post-1992 bid to regain power by inventing a new fantasy enemy - the morally bankrupt Bill Clinton. Extremist Muslims, meanwhile, chose to use terror and violence to try to persuade the people to follow them.
Episode 3
The Shadows in The Cave
60 mins
Western governments consistently refer to al-Qaeda as a highly-structured global network, poised to strike at any moment. But, argues Adam Curtis, does such an organization really exist? He argues that in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September, neoconservatives have reconstructed the Islamists in the image of their most recent 'evil' enemy, the Soviet Union.
