Aug 15, 2022·edited Aug 15, 2022Liked by Weldon Berger
It's great to see you back. Also, thanks for directing me to Froomkin. I've been thinking a lot lately (like, the past five years or so) about Hannah Arendt who helpfully, albeit depressingly, explains how the goal of propaganda isn't really to convince anyone of anything, but to get you to distrust everything. I've wondered if there's a complementary process that's evolved as a function of market-driven news; if all the news is bad, then "bad" begins to lose its meaning or significance.
What the country needs is hope, encouragement and a viable plan. We're not really getting any of those things. Now that we've lost Walter Cronkite et al, we don't have "daddy" explaining to us how everything to us, and how things can be all right. Probably a good thing, but without the reassurance, folks seem to be more comfortable with their head in the sand.
Anything hopeful going on? If the public doesn't find a way to both acknowledge our current status and find a viable path to save our collective face, the incentives to avoid reality will be too seductive, I'm afraid. Of course there's always art, and insightful social commentary at least helps me feel sane.
Welcome back to the show, such as it is, Weldon. I wasn't sure if I was getting your emails until today, when I did a search in my Gmail and presto, there they all were. Don't remember getting them in real time. Maybe they were being held in purgatory until they cleaned up their act.
It's great to see you back. Also, thanks for directing me to Froomkin. I've been thinking a lot lately (like, the past five years or so) about Hannah Arendt who helpfully, albeit depressingly, explains how the goal of propaganda isn't really to convince anyone of anything, but to get you to distrust everything. I've wondered if there's a complementary process that's evolved as a function of market-driven news; if all the news is bad, then "bad" begins to lose its meaning or significance.
What the country needs is hope, encouragement and a viable plan. We're not really getting any of those things. Now that we've lost Walter Cronkite et al, we don't have "daddy" explaining to us how everything to us, and how things can be all right. Probably a good thing, but without the reassurance, folks seem to be more comfortable with their head in the sand.
Anything hopeful going on? If the public doesn't find a way to both acknowledge our current status and find a viable path to save our collective face, the incentives to avoid reality will be too seductive, I'm afraid. Of course there's always art, and insightful social commentary at least helps me feel sane.
And don't call me Shirley.
https://youtu.be/INNmLQnmTa8
Welcome back to the show, such as it is, Weldon. I wasn't sure if I was getting your emails until today, when I did a search in my Gmail and presto, there they all were. Don't remember getting them in real time. Maybe they were being held in purgatory until they cleaned up their act.