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August 28, 2008 at 11:55:58

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By Stephen Pizzo (about the author)     Page 4 of 4 page(s)

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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. That is why tyrants have always relied, and still do, on censorship.

 Censorship, after all, is the tribute tyrants pay to the assumption that a public knows the difference between serious discourse and entertainment-and cares. How delighted would be all the kings, czars and fuhrers of the past and commissars of the present to know that censorship is not a necessity when all political discourse takes the form of a jest.

When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainment, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk: culture-death is a clear possibility.

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Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a (more...)
 

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Excellent, but there is one more little twist: by Mark Sashine on Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 at 12:52:33 PM
more faith..less thought by mikel paul on Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 at 2:17:28 PM
Your aren't quite angry enough. by Philip Dennany on Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 at 7:23:49 PM

 
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