"The price of peace and freedom"

I really enjoyed the film for this week, “The Power of Nightmares.”  I thought it was very intriguing yet a little much to absorb in such a small amount of time, considering I have little knowledge about Leo Strauss or Sayyid Qutb.  In regards to our class, I feel this film did a great job in educating us on our administration and on the construction of fear within our society.

Part 1 of “The Power of Nightmares” is a film that examines the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States as well as the origins of Islamism.  Egyptian Sayyid Qutb travelled to Colorado and came up with a powerful set of ideas.  Qutb was extremely disappointed with America.  He saw inner corruption, vulgarity, selfishness, and materialism under the surface of Americans.  He thought Americans were overly obsessed with materialistic items and culture, preoccupying their lives with hollywood and keeping their lawns perfect.

A Chicago professor named Leo Strauss had the same ideas as Qutb, which was the force behind the Neo-Conservative movement.  Strauss and Qutb were both disgusted with society in the United States.  They also both figured that myths such as good vs. evil, while constructing fear within the society, were necessary to rescue the public from decay.  After leaving America, Qutb became a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and was tortured in Egypt for wanting to change the government.  He was later executed in 1966, but his ideas lived on with the mentor of Osama Bin Laden.

 

Through films and television, the Neo-Conservatives committee portrayed a world where the United States was under attack, and could be attacked at any given time.  Movies also portrayed good vs evil, for example having a ‘good guy’and a ‘bad guy’ fighting, with the good guy always prevailing.  This tactic is what gave the Neo-conservatives great power and influence, especially with calling the Soviet Union ‘evil’.  This binary opposition of good vs. evil is what we see everywhere in politics and our media today.  It is very upsetting to me that this 'fantasy' has lived on and has great consequences.  I would definitely recommend this film to others, especially in the educational system.