~ PDITAOSB ~ Public Discourse In The Age Of Show Business

~ TNITM ~ The Medium Is The Metaphor

~ O-P-R-N-E-A-C-HBTI-CAO-SB-TRITWAAPOTVOAOTD ~ Our – Politics – Religion – News – Athletics – Education – And – Commerce – Have Been Transformed Into – Congenial Adjuncts Of – Show Business – The Result Is That We Are A People On The Verge Of Amusing Ourselves To Death

~ IETWC-AIIETGBTFOTTI ~ In Every Tool We Create – An Idea Is Embedded That Goes Beyond The Function Of The Thing Itself

~ OMAOM-OMCTCOOC ~ Our Media Are Our Metaphors – Our Metaphors Create The Content Of Our Culture

~ ENTIAT-IGATA ~ Every New Technology For Thinking Involves A Tradeoff – It Giveth And Taketh Away

~ TFIWIAE-AWTIWB ~ The Form In Which Ideas Are Expressed – Affects What Those Ideas Will Be

~ TAOSB ~ The Age Of Show Business

~ C-FI-HODIOTIPYOM-ROT-OI-TMP-CYTAYPFTD-O-TTSAYWNOHT-OPI-ISPYARTS? ~ Context-Free Information – How Often Does It Occur That Information Provided You On Morning – Radio Or Television – Or In – The Morning Newspaper – Causes You To Alter Your Plans For The Day – Or – To Take Some Action You Would Not Otherwise Have Taken – Or – Provides Insight Into Some Problem You Are Required To Solve?

~ B-MOODNII-COITGUSTTABCLTAMA ~ But – Most Of Our Daily News Is Inert – Consisting Of Information That Gives Us Something To Talk About But Cannot Lead To Any Meaningful Action

~ AGLOI:TNEFYAVOOAWYCDNETOTAMN-AWYCDN ~ A Great Loop Of Impotence: The News Elicits From You A Variety Of Opinions About Which You Can Do Nothing Except To Offer Them As More News – About Which You Can Do Nothing

~ EBEB-FTFT-WWSIWANQWHA-AW-IAC-DNPAR ~ Everything Became Everyone’s Business – For The First Time – We Were Sent Information Which Answered No Question We Had Asked – And Which – In Any Case – Did Not Permit A Reply

~ AP-CIASITGFAIIASU-B-TUTP-CPIN-A-O-P-S-O-C-IITOULFIWNGCTOL-AT-OC-IT-A ~ A Pseudo-Context Is A Structure Invented To Give Fragmented And Irrelevant Information A Seeming Use – But – The Use The Pseudo-Context Provides Is Not – Action – Or – Problem-Solving – Or – Change – It Is The Only Use Left For Information With No Genuine Connection To Our Lives – And That – Of Course – Is To – Amuse

~ TINSOPI-P/N/E/R/S/S-TDNFIWTT-WMTAPUOTSISBTBOT ~ There Is No Subject Of Public Interest – Politics / News / Education / Religion / Science / Sports – That Does Not Find Its Way To Television – Which Means That All Public Understanding Of These Subjects Is Shaped By The Biases Of Television

~ WRTAT-OWIOT-TI-IC-IE-WINOIPCASCBTCIWWNATI-ITFG-AAN-O-CIAAILTSIT-ASMIPAE ~ We Rarely Talk About Television – Only What Is On Television – That Is – Its Content – Its Ecology – Which Includes Not Only Its Physical Characteristics And Symbolic Code But The Conditions In Which We Normally Attend To It – Is Taken For Granted – Accepted As Natural – One – Cultural Institution After Another Is Learning To Speak Its Terms – All Subject Matter Is Presented As Entertaining

~ TIOCPMOKAI-T-ATITCP-HTSTWBTMFHTWIPTBS-TNODICATDLBWISBAWINBHTSWEPD-TNBBSB ~ Television Is Our Culture’s Principal Mode Of Knowing About Itself – Therefore – And This Is The Critical Point – How Television Stages The World Becomes The Model For How The World Is Properly To Be Staged – The Nature Of Discourse Is Changing As The Demarcation Line Between What Is Show Business And What Is Not Becomes Harder To See With Each Passing Day – There’s No Business But Show Business

~ ‘N…T’ ~ “Now… This”

~ IOT-CRRATDTOT-T-PLNNTTVMWRPTTPCGASOV-OMLLALBBTTT-OEW-LLAT-TBIFBL ~ If On Television – Credibility Replaces Reality As The Decisive Test Of Truth-Telling – Political Leaders Need Not Trouble Themselves Very Much With Reality Provided That Their Performances Consistently Generate A Sense Of Verisimilitude – One May Look Like A Liar But Be Telling The Truth – Or Even Worse – Look Like A Truth-Teller But In Fact Be Lying

~ TIATMO-‘BI’-BCASOITMPBCD-MI-M-I-F-O-S-I-SFMST-BDOAI ~ Television Is Altering The Meaning Of – “Being Informed”– By Creating A Species Of Information That Might Properly Be Called Disinformation – Misleading Information – Misplaced – Irrelevant – Fragmented – Or – Superficial – Information – Something Far More Serious Than – Being Deprived Of Authentic Information

~ TTCINAAATCOP-IIATCOTC ~ The Television Commercial Is Not At All About The Character Of Products – It Is About The Character Of The Consumers

~ TTCHOBAF-MBOV-Y-MCFV-WMT-TBOBHNBP-T-TCIAPABP-D ~ The Television Commercial Has Oriented Business Away From – Making Products Of Value – Toward – Making Consumers Feel Valuable – Which Means That – The Business Of Business Has Now Become Pseudo-Therapy – The Consumer Is A Patient Assured By Psycho-Dramas

~ TITLOAGTC:P-AS-AS-O-AF-TCFVACACIOT ~ This Is The Lesson Of All Great Television Commercials: Provide – A Slogan – A Symbol – Or – A Focus – That Creates For Viewers A Comprehensive And Compelling Image Of Themselves

~ IT-AOSAIP-PDIENOOICBOHCAW ~ In The – Age Of Show Business And Image Politics – Political Discourse Is Emptied Not Only Of Ideological Content But Of Historical Content – As Well

~ TOAVHAKATVOPTMWAAAMOPD-B-MOTCNHEHFASIWTMWITWDNA-TKTCINNWAPDTTFOAJ ~ Tyrants Of All Varieties Have Always Known About The Value Of Providing The Masses With Amusements As A Means Of Pacifying Discontent – But – Most Of Them Could Not Have Even Hoped For A Situation In Which The Masses Would Ignore That Which Does Not Amuse – To Know That Censorship Is Not A Necessity When All Political Discourse Takes The Form Of A Jest

~ TATWBWTSOACMBS-TO:CBAP-TH:CBB ~ There Are Two Ways By Which The Spirit Of A Culture May Be Shriveled – The Orwellian: Culture Becomes A Prison – The Huxleyan – Culture Becomes A Burlesque

~ IMLDIOWAIBR-OL-WI-TGOTPAEI-SER-I-WEP ~ It Makes Little Difference If Our Wardens Are Inspired By Right- Or Left-Wing Ideologies – The Gates Of The Prison Are Equally Impenetrable – Surveillance Equally Rigorous – Icon-Worship Equally Pervasive

~ A-O-WIMETR-ATO-TA-H ~ An – Orwellian – World Is Much Easier To Recognize – And To Oppose – Than A – Huxleyan

~ PCHNYATPTTII-TISOTFTBOVETHAEAOL ~ Public Consciousness Has Not Yet Assimilated The Point That Technology Is Ideology – This In Spite Of The Fact That Before Our Very Eyes Technology Has Altered Every Aspect Of Life

~ TBATATCEWAPFSC-TMTTIN-TMTATTIAAFTCI-ATLH-SPAS ~ To Be Unaware That A Technology Comes Equipped With A Program For Social Change – To Maintain That Technology Is Neutral – To Make The Assumption That Technology Is Always A Friend To Culture Is – At This Late Hour – Stupidity Plain And Simple

~ NMIEDIIUUWIDA-TAITBTS ~ No Medium Is Excessively Dangerous If Its Users Understand What Its Dangers Are – To Ask Is To Break The Spell

~ TCTOCT-TTPDWHISPSFID-WGU-U-IWBNTTMCAS-O-LRODHBOGVTL-SO-B-HSVLOITMP-A-HCALAMPFTATMHS ~ The Central Thesis Of Computer Technology – That The Principal Difficulty We Have In Solving Problems Stems From Insufficient Data – Will Go Unexamined – Until – It Will Be Noticed That The Massive Collection And Speed-Of-Light Retrieval Of Data Have Been Of Great Value To Large-Scale Organizations – But – Have Solved Very Little Of Importance To Most People – And – Have Created At Least As Many Problems For Them As They May Have Solved

~ MC ~ Media Conscious

~ WATP-BNW-WNTTWLIOT-B-TTDNKWTWLAAWTHST ~ What Afflicted The People In – Brave New World – Was Not That They Were Laughing Instead Of Thinking – But – That They Did Not Know What They Were Laughing About And Why They Had Stopped Thinking