[OT] TV, Internet, and Democracy

JoeHill joehill-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org
Thu May 24 01:10:03 UTC 2007


Scott Elcomb left a post-it on the fridge:

> On 5/22/07, JoeHill <joehill-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > Scott Elcomb left a post-it on the fridge:  
> 
> I did?  Cool!
>
> > > While the book isn't out yet, I'd be curious to hear what
> > > reviews/thoughts tluggers might have for this particular excerpt.  My
> > > personal preference would be to discuss on-list (to encourage valuable
> > > communication amongst a primarily Canadian readership) but at the same
> > > time, I'm not connected to the administration of TLUG either.  Please
> > > use your judgment (and respect that of the GTALUG administration) and,
> > > as always, feel free to send comments to me directly.  
> >
> > Cool! Now to reassert myself as the list's resident Crazy.  
> 
> REASSERT: 200 OK.  ;-)

Okay, you got me :-) I know 200 ok from my apache logs, I think, but...

> > Hrm, well, after seeing An Inconvenient Truth and watching Gore on shows
> > like The Daily Show, it's hard not to like the guy, and believe that he's
> > basically a decent person.
> >
> > Then I remember how he answered the question about why he and Clinton
> > bombed a pharmaceuticals factory in Sudan, leading to the preventable
> > deaths of millions and eventually the chaos that we are seeing today. That,
> > and many other things that Gore presided over as VP, were certainly much
> > more than 'assaults on reason'.  
> 
> Well, I'm not familiar (afaik) with that particular event, but I
> suppose as VP he would've had his hands in some ugly things.  I was
> impressed with An Inconvenient Truth, but that's about the extent of
> what I know about him.
> 
> > Okay, let bygones be bygones, right?
> >
> > Seeing what Gore has to say in this excerpt, I can't help but wonder what
> > the heck the rest of the book is about. Not that I don't doubt it's all
> > perfectly valid, it's just not terribly original in terms of the concept,
> > from what I can see. It sounds much like a book by Ben Agger, 'The Decline
> > of Discourse', and I'm sure many other books.
> >
> > Noam Chomsky has written extensively on the idea that fact-based approaches
> > to discourse are and have been under attack for quite some time, and that
> > the twentieth century has merely seen the escalation of the 'manufacturing
> > of consent'.  
> 
> Thanks for the additional references.  I think I'd like to look around
> for some of these works.

Oh, yeah. If this excerpt from Gore's book caught your eye, Manufacturing
Consent might be a real trip.

Was just looking at Wikipedia's entry for Manufacturing Consent, apparently I
just missed a conference at University of Windsor...dang.

> > Then I see something that absolutely delights me whenever it pops up: Al
> > Gore talking about the internet. Wheeeeeeee!
> >
> > Okay, yes, bloggers and sites like Slate and Alternet are overtaking TV news
> > when it comes to drawing the attention of middle class post-literate dweebs
> > like me, but the people who have been truly left out of the democratic
> > process, if our process can even legitimately be called that, are also the
> > people who are highly unlikely to have a broadband connection; and even if
> > they are connected, what good is it going to do them when they've been
> > deliberately disenfranchised on voting day, again a concept with which Gore
> > should be very very familiar.
> >
> > The revolution will be online, quite probably, but Al Gore will have
> > nothing to do with it.  
> 
> For the most part, I agree with you.  It still leaves the problem of
> how effective TV advertising is though.

Advertising, news, same thing ;) I love it when I hear people say 'I don't
mind commercials, I don't think they affect people that much...' lol, sure,
those advertisers are spending a kajillion dollars a second for *nothing* :-\
  
> Thanks for your thoughts Joe.  Most appreciated.  =)

Thank *you* for the opportunity to rant. Glad you appreciate it, my wife and
kids just turn up the TV... 8-) 

-- 
JoeHill
++++++++++++++++++++
"C'mon guys. Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999...again." -Fry 
 "I'm gonna drink 'till I reboot." -Bender 
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