Might I recommend a rather good book on the subject (of the media virus infecting America)? George WS Trow wrote Within the Context of No Context several (23) years ago, and it looks as if we’re still beating around the same bush (no pun intended =). An excerpt:
Who is he? He’s a man in business. Watch him walk. Down the hall. A smile on his face. What is is? A new problem. For a while, it was a new smile that counted, or a new thrill. Now, in certain parts of the building, what matters is the problem, and the little frown of recognition when the problem is mentioned, and the little stabs of pain when a baby girl or baby boy is shown to have the problem. What matters is that, and the effective invocation of a theraputic orthodoxy as people come together to talk about the problem. So openly! They talk about the problem just as if it were a menu! Or a date on the calendar, or a treat! The learn from an expert to talk. They didn’t know how. Matron tells them how. “Did you know that Judy was gulping twenty Quaaludes a day?” Matron is worried. Matron knows how to talk. She learned it in school…Matron is here to persuade us that someone knows what to do
And etc. Anyway this is all in reference to a thread on MetaFilter and I’m interested to see how this Trackback thing in Movable Type works. So let’s find out…