鸟不拉屎共和国: Adam Curtis

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Adam Curtis - The Trap

First of all, a disclaimer. I really do not agree with everything that Adam Curtis presented in this documentary, The Trap, which is an indictment of free market capitalism. One of the sources of the problems of our times, according to him, is that we tend to treat people as numbers. As I am a psychology major (with a statistics minor), I do not totally agree with this criticism. Yes, it is true that once we quantify people, we lose several layers of resolution with regards to the complexity of the individual. However, there are other advantages gained from this as well, which I think Adam Curtis do not mention.

Also, I think that he has misunderstood/misquoted both Richard Dawkins and John Maynard Smith on the genetic views of humans. Dawkins himself said a lot of times in his books that just because our genes have certain characteristics does not equate to the fact that we as complex biological individuals inherently manifest these characteristics. And whether Adam Curtis likes it or not, there are numerous studies that support the genetic hypothesis, as opposed to his seemingly dismissal of it at the end of the documentary.

Third, I think Adam Curtis tried to stretch his logic a bit too far here. If you watch the documentary and write out the premise of his argument statement by statement, you will find that it is not as coherent as he would like, and that there seem to be ridden by a few fallacies (e.g. slippery slope, over-generalization, poisoning the well, to name but a few).

Don't get me wrong. I like the around half to two-thirds of this documentary, where he criticizes the free market (and he brings out a powerful argument) and points out quite correctly that there are problems associated with quantifying individuals that one needs to address (incidentally, this has nothing to do with the quantification process, but rather the interpretation process, which any course in research methodology or even statistics will give one an insight to; as one of my statistics professor once said to me: Don't be so obsessed with the numbers! Be obsessed with how the numbers are obtained!). However, my view is that he does not need to bring out all those psycho-babble bullshit and will still be able to deliver a powerful statement against free market capitalism. Hell, it will make the documentary at least 1 hour shorter!

The Trap - Episode 1 F&#k You Buddy Part 1