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“The moral nihilism of celebrity culture is played out on reality television shows, most of which encourage a dark voyeurism into other people's humiliation, pain, weakness, and betrayal.”
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
“Inverted totalitarianism, unlike classical totalitarianism, does not revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader. It finds expression in the anonymity of the Corporate State. It purports to cherish democracy, patriotism, and the Constitution while manipulating internal levers.”
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
“Washington has become our Versailles. We are ruled, entertained, and informed by courtiers -- and the media has evolved into a class of courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are mostly courtiers. Our pundits and experts, at least those with prominent public platforms, are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games, and the purpose behind it is deception.”
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
“A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, and fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.”
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
“Sadism dominates the culture. It runs like an electric current through reality television and trash-talk programs, is at the core of pornography, and fuels the compliant, corporate collective. Corporatism is about crushing the capacity for moral choice and diminishing the individual to force him or her into an ostensibly harmonious collective. This hypermasculinity has its logical fruition in Abu Ghraib, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our lack of compassion for our homeless, our poor, the mentally ill, the unemployed, and the sick. ... We accept the system handed to us and seek to find a comfortable place within it. We retreat into the narrow, confined ghettos created for us and shut our eyes to the deadly superstructure of the corporate state.”
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
― Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Julia’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Julia’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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