FILMS FOR ACTION
FILMS FOR ACTION NEEDS YOUR HELP
We don't run on ads. We run on donations. Please help us by committing $5 a month.
DONATE NOW

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom? (2007)

3

The Trap is a series of three films by Bafta-winning producer Adam Curtis (The Century of the Self, The Power of Nightmares) that explains the origins of our contemporary, narrow idea of freedom. It shows how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom. In the first episode, Curtis examines the rise of game theory during the Cold War and the way in which its mathematical models of human behavior filtered into economic thought.

Filmmaker Adam Curtis has also directed:

The Century of Self (2002), The Power of Nightmares (2004), All Watched Over by Machines of Love and Grace (2011).


Part 2: The Lonely Robot
Adam Curtis continues his series of films explaining the origins of our contemporary, narrow and limited idea of freedom. This episode tells the story of how, in the 1990s, politicians from both right and left tried to apply an idea of freedom modeled on the freedom of the market to all other areas of society. Behind it was a scientific model of ourselves as simplified robots, rational calculating beings whose behavior and even feelings could be predicted by numbers. Out of this came today's systems of management - from performance targets to the new categories of mental disorder, and reading the genetic codes buried inside us.

Part 3: We Will Force You To Be Free
The final program focuses on the concepts of positive and negative liberty introduced in the 1950s by Isaiah Berlin.

video.google.com
Trending Videos
Iraq Vet Disrupts George W. Bush Speech, Sept. 19 2021
3 min - Iraq War veteran and Empire Files producer Mike Prysner disrupted a speech by George W. Bush in Beverly Hills on Sept. 19, 2021. 
6 Ways to Heal Trauma without Medication, from the Author of “The Body Keeps the Score, ” Bessel van der Kolk
9 min
"Work Is An Intolerable Imprisonment" | J. Krishnamurti
11 min
How The United States Ended Up With Two Right-Wing Parties
14 min
The Myth Of The "Self-Made" Billionaire
13 min - It’s no secret that Americans love to hear about billionaires. You’ll find them everywhere. They’re on the news [Bezos space launch], have their own TV shows, movies, and even make their way to...
Breaking the Cycle - Reclaiming Our Humanity with Our Evolved Nest (2021)
6 min
Small Scale Agroecological Approaches for the COVID 19 Response and Beyond
67 min
The $100 Billion Dollar Ingredient Making Your Food Toxic
29 min
How We Fix the Climate
17 min - We should act as if this is an emergency, because it is. But part of that is understanding the tools and strategies countries are using to decarbonize and stabilize the climate. This is work...
CIA Whistleblower On Declassified 9/11 Documents
123 min
Beyond Trauma Informed, with Darcia Narvaez and Mary Tarsha
85 min
Schooling the World (2010)
66 min
Afghanistan War Pays Off BIG For Generals Who Lied
5 min - Where are all the top US commanders of the Afghanistan War who lied to keep it going for 20 years? Turns out they're doing pretty well! Support Empire Files on Patreon. 
Earthlings (2005)
95 min
Oliver Stone: The Untold History Of The United States (2012)
570 min
The Banker Ladies
21 min
LOAD MORE
Trending Articles
Deep Reads - Get Cozy and Dig in
Occupy Your Brain: The Profound Ways that Schooling Harms Society
The End of the Corporation?
How to Fix the World
Revolution without Upheaval: A Manual Of Change
Films For Action University: a Map for Navigating the Transition From Empire to Earth Community
The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand: Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege
Have You Heard of The Great Forgetting? It Happened 10,000 Years Ago & Completely Affects Your Life
A Thousand Rivers: What the Modern World has Forgotten about Children and Learning
When We Judge a Person Harshly With a Label or Dismissal, We Kill the Human Being Inside of Them
Why Do so Many People Get Lost in Drugs Instead of Making a Life That You Don't Need to Escape From?
A Gentle Corrective for the Epidemic of Identity Politics Turning Us on Each Other and on Ourselves
The Compassionate Activist Toolkit: the Ultimate Guide to Love-Centered Activism
Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure
What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?
Dear White People. An Open Letter to White People on Becoming Indigenous
Can We Go to the Very Root of Violence and Be Free from It?
On the Wildness of Children: The Revolution Will Not Take Place In The Classroom
Wanted: Men Who Love
Seeing Wetiko: on Capitalism, Mind Viruses, and Antidotes for a World in Transition
Why Tribal Societies Work: An Introduction
Five Dangerous Thoughts about Capitalism
Deconstructing Workplace Hierarchies: On Contrived Leadership and Arbitrary Positions of Power
The Whiting of Euro-Americans: A Divide and Conquer Strategy
Understanding Patriarchy
The White Working-Class Must Name The True Root of Their Problems If They Ever Want to Get Free
You Are Still Being Lied To: Columbus and the Myth of Human Progress
Positive Thinking in a Dark Age: A 12-Step Guide to Gracefully Responding to a Collapsing Dominant Culture
Humanity Is Being Held Hostage by an Economic and Cultural Death Cult
Our Way of Life Works AMAZING for Products, But It Works TERRIBLE for People
What Martin Luther King Jr. Can Teach Us about Nonviolence
The New Story Revolution: Over 75 Films & Articles About the Movement With Many Names
Environmental Films
Transition Documentaries
Featured Documentaries

Films For Action is a library for people who want to change the world.

 

Our mission is to provide citizens with the knowledge and perspectives essential to creating a more beautiful, just, sustainable, and democratic society.

Films For Action was founded in 2006 by a few friends in Lawrence, Kansas, after realizing how essential healthy media is to a healthy democracy.

Over the last 15 years, we've reviewed and curated over 1,000 free documentaries and 4,000 short films, plus over 150 pay-per-view documentaries, spanning 34 topics related to changing the world.

During this time we've been able to reach tens of millions of people - not by owning a TV network or spending truckloads of cash on advertising, but because millions of awesome people keep sharing 'films for action' with their friends on social media - in particular, our 850,000 supporters on Facebook and 70,000 site members. 

One of the coolest things is, thanks to our patrons, our library is ad-free and 100% supported by member donations, while 99% of our library is free to access and always will be. The pay-per-view films on our site, of course, help support the filmmakers, and 90-100% of the revenue for PPV films hosted by us goes to the filmmakers. 

To thank our $5/mo patrons, we partner with filmmakers and distributors to provide free access to a growing number of films that are normally pay-per-view. With just 20 highly curated films at the moment, it's basically a very, very tiny Netflix for world changers, but its main function is to support the library as a whole.

If you'd like to know more, want to help out, or you're a filmmaker looking to collaborate, feel free to get in touch!

Cheers,  Tim Hjersted