You may recall The Century Of Self, Adam Curtis’ documentary about the PR/psychoanalytical/marketing complex and how that method of persuasion eventually reached government. In The Trap: What Happened To Our Dream Of Freedom, Curtis explores how John Nash’s model of human behavior known as game theory came to dominate the worldview of cold war strategists, politicians, civil servants, economists, psychology and biology.

These decision makers learned two things from game theory: first, that people can only be trusted to serve their ultimate self-interest and, second, that if we simply set measurable goals and benchmarks with tangible rewards for meeting them, then our civil institutions will be free to creatively devise how to accomplish those goals. This notion of self-interest rules out altruism or any activity intended for a “greater good.” Curtis explores how these ideas came about, who conceived them, how they evolved from models into a dominating worldview and, ultimately, why these models are flawed and poor guidelines for creating a humane society. If you are maddened by exclamations that “the market is god” or that economics preclude social justice, this series is for you. This isn’t Adam Curtis working stadium rock-style like in The Power Of Nightmares, it’s an ambitious film tackling an abstract but essential subject.

Link to Episode Two

Link to part 1 of Episode Three