Disruption
Channel: Richard Horvath
Date: 2018-11-10

This video, Disruption, begins with salient points from former British military officer and historian John Bagot Glubb’s 1975 essay, The Fate of Empires, which examines the historic signs of societal decline. The Course of Empire, a series of paintings by the 19th century American artist, Thomas Cole, is presented as a visual counterpart of this historical process.

The middle section of the video contains heavilly processed archival footage of an FBI training film of crowds overlaid by a soundtrack of a sermon attacking contemporary morals and field recordings of riots that symbolise the confusion of competing political values.

The final section has a darker tone suggesting the bad outcome of politically repressive authoritarian regime replacing the progressive policies that had their origin in the 1960’s, and which are failing to connect with disenchanted voters.

The sections are punctuated by graphic representations of contemporary alt right and liberal memes.

Recommended reading about the themes of this project:

Archive.org
The Fate of Empires by John Bagot Glubb (PDF)
https://archive.org/details/pdfy-2F_iHS6BLtGJb2ad

Libertarianism.org: Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire
https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/art-ideas-thomas-coles-course-empire

Ribbonfarm: A quick (Battle) Field Guide to the New Culture Wars
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/03/06/a-quick-battle-field-guide-to-the-new-culture-wars/

The Economist: How the Grotesque Online Culture Wars Fuel Populism
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/08/03/how-the-grotesque-online-culture-wars-fuel-populism

Politico: World War Meme
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/memes-4chan-trump-supporters-trolls-internet-214856