The Consumer Trap

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007

Schudson Shouldn’t (Have His Job)

First, he writes a book arguing that corporate advertising (and, by extension, marketing — though he displays no deep knowledge of the latter) have no effect on public behavior and are, corporate shareholders notwithstanding, merely exercises in managerial vanity.

Now, he writes a book review that:

1. blames the general public not just for the Iraq War, but for the profoundly sick Orwellian corporate capitalist pseudo-journalism that stoked it. He “favors” this explanation for all that:

“the strong inclination of citizens to mold perception of facts (did we find WMDs in Iraq? did Osama bin Laden conspire with Saddam on the 9/11 attacks?) to their political preference”;

and

2. blames the extremely sorry and still-worsening state of official (Democratic Party) liberalism on political polarity, rather than political cravenness. The lack of an alternative on any major issue is due, he says, to:

“the polarization of party politics so that a conservative evangelical base is all but unwavering in support of a conservative born-again President while independents and moderates are confused and divided.”

This guy, a tenured full professor, is living proof of how the system is set up to implant the most amazing kinds of counter-factual Jabberwocky in the key spots where realism is most dangerous to power. Ugh.