Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible

2.5

Riveting and chilling.

Pomerantsev spent a decade immersed in the Russian TV industry, making documentaries about characters of the new Russia. Glitz, fairytales, scandals, corruption, money, money, money. There are the documentaries that make it to air as they are sure to keep the public and the government happy, and then there are the documentaries that won't get greenlit when sudden anti-government plotpoints turns up. He leads us into the Gold Digger academy, where young pretty Russian girls learn how to snatch themselves an oligarch. We go to Siberia to meet the Russian gangster who finances and films his own movies. There are the TV executives who fall in and out of favor with the Kremlin, and the company owner who suddenly is imprisoned and disowned when certain chemicals in cleaning products are suddenly declared ‘narcotics'. Everyone plays a part, and the better you playact, the richer you will get. As long as you pay all the bribes along the way. And all along, the state propaganda ramps up, feeds more and more anti-West sentiments, and keeps the public happy and occupied showing quacksalvers and hypnotists on TV. What a portrait of a nation (the part of the nation that's on TV and has all the money). His follow-up book feels like the logical progression: [b:This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality 41717504 This Is Not Propaganda Adventures in the War Against Reality Peter Pomerantsev https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545380013l/41717504.SY75.jpg 65073585].

A good primer on how spectacle and sentiment can do a lot of work for your budding tyrannies.