I picked up Al Gore’s newest book: The Assault on Reason. It’s remarkable. I’ve found that the best way to introduce it to people is to give them a sample of his reasoning without telling them who wrote it. Otherwise, their knee jerk reactions (for or against) overwhelm the logic of the arguments. This is, in fact, precisely the point of the book.
Mass-media political campaigns have to rely on emotional appeal rather than rational argument. Television and radio are great ways to make people feel afraid (or proud and nationalistic), but terribly ways to convey they nuances of government policy. In addition, there is far less of a possibility that an individual citizen will be able to participate (in a meaningful way) in a conversation carried out on television, vs. a similar conversation carried out in newspapers, essays, and pamphlets.
In addition, mass media tends to centralize communication in a top-down manner. Rich corporations have a voice, and use the tools of propaganda and advertising to “manufacture consent,” among the governed.
It’s a neat book. I don’t know yet if I buy into it … but WHERE THE HELL WAS THIS MAN IN 2000? He’s articulate, passionate, blazingly smart, witty … everything that he wasn’t in that campaign.
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