What makes a good Utopia? Are there minimum critical success factors that would allow the vagaries of human nature to be overcome? Does it mean a four day work week and personal […]
Presidential preference polls: how media create a fake horse race
You can smell that foul odor wafting through the air — presidential politics. Wannabees who won’t say they wannabee are peddling books. Sharply dressed and coiffed “I haven’t decided yet” politicians descend […]
The painted kipper (pt. 4): "measuring culture" and the Orwellian trifecta
Part 4 in a series. One way to get the measure of a person – their temper, as in mood, their dispositions, both emotional and intellectual, what they glean from life, how […]
Knockers: the ethics of cleavage
By Ann Ivins If you’re a woman in a Western or Westernized culture in the twenty-first century, chances are good that you have, do or will own, wear, struggle to get into […]
Boomers, part 3: Beatle and other manias…
Ceci n’est pas Pink #@#@^&%$ Floyd… Historians often argue that dates should not be the focus of history. Hell, much of the last quarter century has been dominated by intellectuals arguing that […]
Boomers, part 2: in which Beaver decides to be fab…
America’s First Family, Boomer parents’ edition The Boomers are the first TV generation. We’ve been intimates of television since its infancy as the mass medium of choice for Americans. Because of television’s […]
Boomers, part 1: how does it feel?
Not Mr. Jones…. Everything starts somewhere. This series of posts starts from a thoughtful post by Sara Robinson over at Campaign for America’s Future that our colleague Russ Wellen alerted us to. […]
Suck factor: the glory of violence, the horror of sexuality
by mentalswitch There are three mainstays in today’s Hollywood: sex, violence and special effects. Special effects in movies, when well done, are fun. They help us escape from our lives to enjoy […]
Why American media has such a signal-to-noise problem, pt. 2
Part 2 of a series; Previously: What Bell Labs and French Intellectuals Can Tell Us About Cronkite and Couric The Signal-to-Noise Journey of American Media The 20th Century represented a Golden Age […]
American media’s signal-to-noise ratio problem, part 1
Part one of a two-part series. From Walter Cronkite to Katie Couric: the Kingdom of Signal is swallowed by the Empire of Noise The recent death of Walter Cronkite spurred the predictable […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 