拍一部政治题材的面向公众的纪录片之难，在于它不但要把道理讲得深入浅出，又要尽量做到不偏不倚——显然，在各种主题中，再没有比这个主题更难不偏不倚的了。而讲道理，本来就不是电视节目的应有功能，若要理解意识形态之战的虚妄，大可以去看书。但是无论从哪个角度来说，The Power of Nightmares 都神奇地解决了这些难题，堪称此类节目之典范——当然了，此类节目本来就不多。
1.殊途同归
故事从三十年前，伊斯兰激进主义和新保守主义几乎在同一时间的起源讲起，这时我们就开始隐隐意识到，这两个如今在世界政治中水火不相容的势力，或者教派，是有那么多的相似之处。以Al-Zawahiri在内的许多激进主义者，无疑都是受到了伊斯兰思想家Sayyid Qutb的著作的启发，这位思想家把现在的伊斯兰社会看作是Jahiliyyah（ignorance of divine guidance），因此从根本上，所有当前的伊斯兰国家都是非伊斯兰的，也是非合法（作为正当性的合法性）的。造成这种情况的重要原因，就是来自西方 ——尤其是美国的自由主义民主制的侵蚀。这些侵蚀破坏了社会的道德根基，滋生邪恶，摧毁正义。
Whilst the 20th century was dominated between a conflict between a free-market Right and a socialist Left, even though both of those outlooks had their limitations and their problems, at least they believed in something, whereas what we are seeing now is a society that believes in nothing. And a society that believes in nothing is particularly frightened by people who believe in anything.
And, therefore, we label those people as fundamentalists or fanatics and they have much greater purchase in terms of the fear that they instill in society than they truly deserve. But that's a measure of how much we have become isolated|and atomised rather than of their inherent strength.
