Americans' concerns about moral decline

William S. Lear rael at zopyra.com
Thu Jun 24 15:10:02 PDT 1999


On Thursday, June 24, 1999 at 14:47:23 (-0400) Doug Henwood writes:
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>Somehow,
>>we have to create psychic space so that simple truths and honest values
>>can prevail.
>
>That's not enough. There has to be some passionate/fantastic core - some
>It, to use the Zizekian/Lacanian terminology - to bind them together and to
>make it all seem worthwhile. PR and ad people understand that - they know
>that commodities and ideas have to be suffused with an emotional glow,
>whether we're talking soft drinks ("Coke is It!" indeed) or political ideas
>("Morning in America"). How do you jam their signals and come up with good
>ones?

Gad, I think this is the last thing we need to do. Passion on the left cannot be brought about by ad jingles, but must rise from within. Besides, what happens when you run out of catchy jingles?

PR and ad people know how to manipulate and deceive and how to build passions, often ersatz ones, based on self-interest. The "science of coercion" should be kept as far away from progressive politics as possible.

I'm all for being decent to one another, for trying to make life enjoyable and fun, but I think the answer to the woes of the left can come only through a lot of hard work from determined people.

I grant this sounds grim and humorless, but mixing emotional appeals and politics makes me very, very worried, and I think passion can arise from a more sober approach in any case. Hell, I've had enough passion to dispute the standard media fare on things, to participate in forums like this that operate without a decent PR effort, and to tell most who will listen how screwed up our world is...

I'd like to think that if for one hour each day in each city we could run a news show that would simply report the facts of the world accurately, most of the disgusting politics we have now would quickly evaporate.

Bill



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