Adam Curtis’ basic thesis behind the documentary is that the world became too complex for the institutions of power to actually manage, so they instead turned to managing the simpler narratives that set the parameters for reality, namely the feelings and mindsets at the atomized individual level. Hypernormalisation refers to the way everyone can clearly see reality is broken, but changing the world seems either overwhelming or outright impossible in comparison to changing personal feelings about it. He draws a constellation with this pattern through social media as a tool to control information flows, pharmaceuticals to remedy social conditions that precipitate mental illnesses, a wellness industry worth multi-trilliong-dollars, recycling and carbon footprint campaigns, and liberal counterculture that grew cynical about changing systems when retreating into self-expressive activities was easier.
If we take this thesis as plausible,