The Middle Mind
I found this excerpt from a Harper’s article today, and I’m interested to read the whole argument:
“The New Censorship does not work by keeping things secret. Are our leaders liars and criminals? Is the government run by wealthy corporations and political elites? Are we all being slowly poisoned? The answer is yes to all of the above, and there’s hardly a soul on these shores who doesn’t know it. The reign of George II practically revels in this perverse transparency. Oil policy created in backrooms from Enron and ExxonMobil. Naked pandering to the electricity industry in rolling back clean-air mandates. Accounting firms such as Arthur Andersen buying even ‘watchdog’ liberal senators such as Christopher Dodd. Elections rigged with brother Jeb’s connivance in Florida. All of these details are utterly public, reported in newspapers, television newscasts, and books, yet it’s perfectly safe for this stuff to be known. The genius of the New Censorship is that it works through the obscenity of absolute openness.”
— Curtis White, “The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don’t Think for Themselves“
Speaking of “rigged elections,” I also came across this incendiary Flash presentation today.
In both cases, I wasn’t even looking for political information: one came from a media site, the other a personal finance site. Ahh, the Internet.