Genius of the Modern World

I could watch these forever!! Such an amazing collection of work & history. This led me to order books & learn more about these great minds!

I have read quite a-lot about the "Geniuses" mentioned in this series. It baffles me to see the amount of ignorance the makers of the show has about the relevance of the thinkers mentioned in this series. All three of them belong to the school of suspicion which to put it crudely had a very cynical view of the human condition and human society. They are the ones who provided the tools and analysis to deconstruct the social relationships of the society they were born into. Here Freud takes an approach focused on the individual. Regarding the applications of their ideologies and philosophy, two of them (viz. Marx and Nietzsche) greatly influenced the regimes that mass murdered their own people in the 20th century and at times these sufferings can be traced back to the writings these geniuses. For those who are curious about those regimes, they were the Communists and the Nazis. We know what happened to those regimes in the end. As for the writings of Freud, since he worked in a rather stringent scientific discipline, he analysis were soon discarded or greatly modified by the later practitioners of his field. Carl Jung being one of them which is ironic since he was his student once. Very few of the Marx and Nietzsche writings can provide an insight into the native societies and people other than the european contingent which is reasonable as they never attempted to. It is their students who insist and then go on to great lengths to make their works universally applicable. Freud is an exception here since his work was centered on the human mind rather than societies or cultures. As it with reality not being black and white, they do provide some penetrating insights into some aspects of the human condition but those aren't enough to put them on a pedestal as the show attempts. This show is a continuing example of modern writers and scholars having a leftist bend in their outlook which certainly doesn't provide a complete picture. The thinkers mentioned in the previous iteration of this show (Genius of the Ancient World), which too has its flaws of taking a western perspective on Buddha and Confucius, all had arguably a more positive view and impact on the human society at large than the thinkers mentioned in this series which is disappointing as I had high hopes for this iteration. The choice of thinkers between the two iterations really shows the sad state of affairs of today's modern world. Overall, very disappointed with the choice of thinkers and the narrative of the show.

This is a 3-part BBC follow-up to Genius of the Ancient World (2015). Host Bettany Hughes examines three big thinkers who ushered in the modern 20th century; Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. There is an inherent improvement over the previous series. I know very little about the lives of these three famous names. Even their groundbreaking works are only bumper sticker slogans to me. So a lot of this series is new information and that's very compelling. In a way, these three episodes are much darker, more tragic, and more human. That also makes their stories more complex and more fascinating. They can be depressing. They have powerful echoes throughout the modern world. It's an interesting dive into these big names.

I only watched the first episode, and that's enough. Packed with inaccurate information, some being not circumstantiated. It would appear the whole point is to make the viewer think Marx was mentally ill and an alcoholic. Political statements disguised as historical facts. A mixture between superficiality and the worst manipulative journalism.

She has no idea who Nietzsche is. They totally misunderstood his ideologies. On the other hand, it is a shame to talking about skin illness of Marx. This can not be a topic of a respected documentary.