Full Description
In this innovative book, the authors persuasively argue that the First Amendment to the Constitution has risen in the late twentieth century, like an ill guided individual with knife in hand, to murder a longstanding tradition of fine and meaningful discourse in the United States. We are bombarded with the cacophony of advertisement, the luridity of pornography, and the pointlessness of prime timepoor substitutes for intelligent consideration of ideas. }In this innovative book, the authors persuasively argue that the First Amendment to the Constitution has risen in the late twentieth century, like an ill-guided individual with knife in hand, to murder a long-standing tradition of fine and meaningful discourse in the United States. What has died is the essential kind of political discourse which promotes democracy; informs citizens; enlivens debate; and carries reason, method, and purpose. Instead, we are bombarded with the cacophony of advertisement, the luridity of pornography, and the pointlessness of prime time.With satirical spirit and wityet to a very serious purpose the narrative of this lively study calls upon many of the very tricks it criticizes. The text is augmented by amusing tales, poetry, tv zaps, eyebites, and boxes of aphorisms resonating between high and low culture, between Plato and Geraldo and Madonna and Mahler to make its points, the discussion reveals how discourse in contemporary America has lost its integrity and its soul.
Contents
* The Paratroopers Paradox The Huxleyan Crossing The Soma Medium: Its Mechanics & Messages A Rear-View-Mirror Look at the First Amendment Wrestling with the Paradox The First Amendment in Bold ReliefA Dialogue * Commerce And Communication Commerce & Its Handmaiden: Then & Now Commercial Communication & Its Consequences Commerce, Communication & the Constitution Communication & the Capitalist Culture Absolut Protection?A Dialogue * Discourse And Intercourse The Rise of the Pornographic State The Logic of the Erotic Body Politics & the Ambivalent Citizenry War & Pleasure in Pornutopia Rubber, Reason, & Religion in Pornutopia Respectable Stories for an Unrespectable State How Worthy a Tradition?The Last Dialogue * Epilogue Deliberate Lies & Deliberative Democracy The Discourse of Death
