It was suggested by Perth Business Gateway to rewrite the 2001 proposal to use the Millennium Dome as a global environmental management centre, this time relevant for Scotland in 2006. The outline executive summary, Scotland:The World's First Ecological Superpower, was produced. The next stage is to implement it, what do you think?

Sunday 11 March 2007

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom

Having just watched The Trap: What happened to our Freedom of Dreams, BBC2 Sunday 11 March, this must be the recommended must see programme of the week. If it is shown again as a repeat or on BBC 3/4 or on You Tube then try and catch it if you haven't seen it.

It starts with
Game Theory developed by John Nash as part of the strategies used by the US in the cold war nuclear stand off with Russia. These were incorporated, but unknown to the Rand Corporation and Pentagon, Nash was a schizophrenic and paranoid.

The theory is simply that individual freedom is based on mistrusting everybody else. The ideas were then applied as the basis of Thatchers Conservative Government. The programme personally hit so many resonances with me from an assessment of my work in planetary ecological systems and reading such posts as
Doctor Vee's review of YouScotland and MacNumpy's Independence 1, together with many other blogs.

In the cold war stand off it was assumed there would be a climate of mistrust and no co-operation. This was only a theory of the game. This was then allowed to become a political doctrine and for society to believe in this. This was the basis of mutually assured destruction(MAD) and the 'balance of fear' of the cold war.

In my post
Scotland, Trident and the Legacy of JFK, I presented a case that was the opposite of MAD, that would try to ensure a better for Scotland. That the programme was exposing the myth of Game Theory, which in a way is what I was trying to do, or at least present an opposite workable implementation of it, has given me a little outside influence that I was going in a positive direction.

The programme covered the work of Scot's psychiatrist
R D Laing and many other areas. This weeks work will now be trying to tie this critique of Game Theory, which myself was rejecting, into the things and influences I have gained this week fro all the high quality blogs I have been reading and much of current affairs seen in the media which I disagree with.

Thanks to everyone whose blogs I have been reading! The second part of The Trap will be shown next week, unmissable for bloggers questioning the political and social climate we live in.

2 comments:

brian in the tamar valley said...

I wished I had seen it. Must try and watch Part 2.

Roger Thomas said...

Nice of you to pop over again Brian. I ahave been over to yours on many occasions. You've been writing on local affairs. I saw the news about the deaths etc, so it was predetermined you would have to do something about them.

I will in the near future be doing something on your walk and your views on Robin Cook and John Smith.

Possibly you might be able to see The trap: Dreams of freedom on BBC3/4. They are really good for repeats.

Don't miss part 2 if it is half as good as part one it will be most excellent.

Cheers and all the best.