Wednesday, January 1, 2014

New audiobook release: Public Opinion, by Walter Lippmann

"You want to know why journalism doesn't get it? You know why journalism isn't on top of it? Because they have read Walter Lippmann." - Glenn Beck, May 27th, 2010.

The implication here is that if you want to understand the foundational corruption of the institution of journalism, you should be reading Walter Lippmann. They are.

Now you have a new option on the table. Listen to it.

This book consists of 28 chapters, all 28 are now freely downloadable. More than anything else, this is what the progressingamerica project is all about. There is so much work to do with understanding progressivism. This isn't like communism. If you want to understand communism then all you have to do is go read Marx's manifesto. There you go, with one book you have solved the problem. Sure, you could read more, read much more. But you don't have to. Same thing for fascism. Go read the Fascist Manifesto or Mein Kampf. There you go, you have it covered.

But there is no progressive manifesto in the same sense. In order to understand progressivism, you need to read John Dewey to learn about it from the educational point of view, you need to read Woodrow Wilson to understand it from the administration point of view, and to understand progressivism and journalism, Walter Lippmann is your go-to guy. John Dewey is widely considered the Father of Modern Education; Lippmann is the Father of Modern Journalism. With progressivism being such a large topic to tackle, audiobooks should make it easier to consume.

What makes it worse, is that the book Public Opinion is not an easy read. Large portions of it are couched in the view from World War 1, which is the era in which the book was written. However, some of the undeniable aspects of the book appear when he starts explaining how to use key words in order to manipulate public opinion and even how to create it. From there, the whole book gets placed in context for what it really is. I know I may be asking a lot, but I do recommend a second reading(or listening) of this once you have reached the end. I make it a point to constantly read the progressives' own writings, and as you can see in that last link I did not spot nearly as much out of this book as is there.

This book Public Opinion is a blueprint for veiled public manipulation - veiled under the disguise of "objectivity". Like all blueprints, it takes time to fully understand how to read them.

http://tinyurl.com/onlur2l

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