Americans' concerns about moral decline

[Carl Remick]

> It's all very high-minded to talk about doing politics reasonably and 
> factually, but it just won't stick. Politics is about collective 
> identifications and interests, and those are formed not only out of 
> rationality and self-interest but also out of irrational, affective, 
> even erotic bonds. PR and advertising is about using appeals to the 
> irrational, affective, and erotic to lie to and seduce people. But it 
> works well because its practitioners understand how to do it well.
> 
> What is "workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but 
> your chains" but a soundbite with an emotional hook? It makes an 
> appeal to collectivity and the longing for freedom. It's the 
> conclusion of a brilliant piece of polemical prose that uses rational 
> argument, but hot rhetoric too.

But where is that longing for freedom today?  People think they are free
-- free to buy whatever they want at K-mart, free to watch whatever they
want on the tube, free to dress down on Friday.

To me, what PR practioners know how to do well is to push on an open
door.  People seem to be eager to believe that, say, Lee Iacocca is an
American hero.

Carl Remick