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brushwolfPeople often point to those big Lincolnesque debates as proof of literacy declining but I disagree. With no television or movies, listening to two really educated people talking circles around each other was entertaining. But you notice that the public furor over slavery and the eventual ACW still very much demonstrate a human desire to see any conflict in the most dramatic, clean-cut way, unbiased by having participants entertained by debate.
Media plays to this desire for drama in a way that plugs back into actual campaigning. Candidates give the watchers what they want to view, whether it's a six hour debate or pithy soundbytes. I'd argue that the internet has brought this thing - the need for actual government, versus the desire to see everything as nice clear cut drama, and the need for anyone doing a big production to have big money sponsorship - to a particularly nasty phase.
We definitely have the ability to go digging beyond what our pastors/priests/parents/schools/big media companies tell us the conflict is, but public debate is definitely at that "their beliefs threaten our way of life and probable physical existence" stage of things that sort of maintains itself.
I think I'm going to file this one with gender equality and ginormous population growth as "something which will be better resolved 10-60 years down the line, but not yet."
Media plays to this desire for drama in a way that plugs back into actual campaigning. Candidates give the watchers what they want to view, whether it's a six hour debate or pithy soundbytes. I'd argue that the internet has brought this thing - the need for actual government, versus the desire to see everything as nice clear cut drama, and the need for anyone doing a big production to have big money sponsorship - to a particularly nasty phase.
We definitely have the ability to go digging beyond what our pastors/priests/parents/schools/big media companies tell us the conflict is, but public debate is definitely at that "their beliefs threaten our way of life and probable physical existence" stage of things that sort of maintains itself.
I think I'm going to file this one with gender equality and ginormous population growth as "something which will be better resolved 10-60 years down the line, but not yet."