When Hillary started her run for President – I was impressed. After six years of flying under the radar as the senator from my state – going along with much of the Bush foreign policy agenda – she was talking with intelligence and authority on the issues. She said all the right things in the debates; even on the war in Iraq.  While she was still my least favorite candidate (after Joe Biden), I still felt like I could get behind her if she was the candidate in the general election. But the more I learned about Hillary’s team the less I liked her.

The Bush Years might not have produced much to be proud of, but one thing the have produced is an abundance of theories about the origin of the Bush Years.  Many of them are quite good; they provide both historical/theoretic insight and also guides for practical action.  I decided to make a chart of some of them, which you'll find below.

What I find most surprising and also invigorating about these ideas is that they are not "Marxist"; they are not merely rehashings of old-school dialectical materialism.  These new accounts are genuinely original takes on the way the world works, what's wrong with it, and what best to do about it.  Some of them, most especially, I think, Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, are state-of-the-art -- they bring an exhilerating clarity to events that are seen only dimly or darkly through the older lenses lying around on the critical workbench.

Adam Curtis exposes the public manipulation we sense but usually don't understand. His BBC documentaries are legendary in Britain but practically unknown in the US. An American network executive who wouldn't even let his name be used said "we would be crucified if we showed that here". These documentaries are like a graduate course in how the American and British public has been herded like cattle since the end of World War I.

Each episode is about an hour and all are jaw dropping-ly insightful. Adam Curtis other BBC Documentaries, The Trap, The Mayfair Set, and Pandoras Box build on The Century of the Self and the Power of Nightmares.

Some of you know the name Adam Curtis for his extraordinary BBC News series, "The Power of Nightmares."  If you haven't seen the series, here is Part One and, Part two and here is part three.

Mr. Curtis has a new series coming that is causing quite a stir.  More below the jump.