| | I heard this author, Bill Bishop, interviewed on "Talk of the Nation," a public radio (PRI) show, on one of my many local NPR affliates. His thesis, "The Big Sort" is that we are clustered into like-minded groups, not only on venues like this, but even in physical neighborhoods, where precincts are no longer 50-50, or 45-55 or 60-40, but 80-20 and 10-90.
Last summer on this board, someone recommended a Glenn Beck show and it tied in to a topic in an econ class I had in multinational enterprises and I mentioned it to the prof, that "Glenn Beck viewers" would feel differently about his surmise. The guy is a marxist, up front, no doubt about it. But he is not stupid: he got his doctorate at MIT and when I talk to him I can see in his eyes that he gets to the end of my sentence before I do. But he had absolutely no idea who Glenn Beck is. Never heard of him. Glenn Beck speaks to Glenn Beck viewers.
Conservatives who listened to "Air America" were not blown away by Al Franken's insightful humor. They listened to get mad. Which they did. But their minds were not changed.
To call Glenn Beck the Thomas Paine of our revolution is to miss the fact that that revolution actually engaged about two-thirds of the people of the time. Your revolution consists entirely of a self-selected minority that pleases itself with its own actions. "See! We made the news!!" ... and three minutes later, the news has aired a story about fifth graders collecting for charity, two commercials for anti-depressants and a missing child poster...
Overwhelming social change is large, slow, and mostly not perceived at the time. The so-called "American Revolution" did not begin on July 3, 1776. The Marines were formed the previous November. The first Continental Currency was issued the April before that. The American Revolution began -- if it "began" at all -- in 1754 or maybe 1763. Do you know the Massachusetts Pine Tree Shillings of 1654? Numismatist Michael Hodder said that Massachusetts was purposely seizing the prerogatives of a sovereign state, including the invasions of New Hampshire (from which they were forced to withdraw) and Maine (which they kept). It was from that same time that the different colonies drew up compacts for mutual defense. So, maybe the "American Revolution" took over 100 years to play out.
Ted Keer posted the link to the video. Always interested in new ideas, I watched it. I noticed that the sidebars offered similar images, so I watched a few. It was not hard to find three scraps from a larger work presenting the same kinds of images, the very same images, as the ones offered in the Glenn Beck trailer. Ted Keer calls that "Objectionism" and maybe we need more of that and fewer group hugs. I agree 100% that it is a hassle trying to have one conversation about politics or art or when someone jumps in to claim that reality is not the same for everyone or that Jesus is Lord. Granted that. But if reporting simple truths is objectionable, then perhaps the problem lies with those who object to the truth.
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(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 1/22, 5:07am)
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