Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00128)

Dear Anton,

> I would rather say that TV producers are creating such demand 
> appealing to the material side of human nature out of corporate 
> interests and in that way ruing people's values.
Yes. This is how I see it too. I believe that it is American corporate 
interests that started it. They are interested in training people to be 
consumers--to buy their products whether they need the product or not. 
This country has what is called "a culture of youth." That is: there is 
a fear of growing old, so people buy products which make them look 
young. It is not only women. For instance, Men commonly die their hair 
in order to look younger. The ideal is to be a sexually active and self 
absorbed juvenile.

> The same story is with public opinion polls. Are they stating or are 
> they creating public opinion?
I believe that American public public opinion polls more or less reflect 
public opinion. This may be different in some other countries. I don't 
know. Here, public opinion polls are conducted by independent agencies 
in order to gather information for many different reasons. They try to 
be as accurate as possible. The exception is opinion poles conducted by 
and for political interests. I indeed did see several public opinion 
poles, near the time of the last election, which were designed to create 
public opinion--not measure it.

> It seems to me that we are in front of a kind of "Potemkin's 
> village" – that we see the things as someone, out of an interest, 
> want to present them to us and not as they really are.
Nice metaphor. I found and read the story of Potemkin's village on the 
Internet. I don't believe I have ever heard this story before. Do you 
know where and when the story originated?

In the case of the U.S., this political Administration is very secretive 
and are trying very hard to hide realities. They have an expert named 
Karl Rove, who has been especially successful at creating public 
opinion. Interestingly, his strategy is to attack the political enemy's 
strong points. He has been amazingly effective at taking control of the 
rhetoric.

One of the members of our study group is a journalist. She writes for on 
of the larger newspapers in the area. She was saying that the Editors 
are having a very hard time. Even though this newspaper has a 
conservative readership, whenever they publish something that is even 
mildly critical of the administration, the White House calls the editor 
and threatens him by saying that if such articles continues, they will 
deny access to his reporters. As far as I know, this is the first 
administration which has tried to control the press in this way.

Best wishes,
Jerry





Anton Rozman wrote:

> Dear Jerry and Anand,
>
> You wrote:
>
>
>
> > The most popular program at the time was a series called "Beverly 
> Hills 90210." It was a fictional series about the sex lives of 
> teenage kids growing up in Beverly Hills.<
>
>
>
> > Perhaps most people in the world like this subject. TV programs are 
> made according to demand from people. There is huge demand for such 
> programs and so producers make and show such programs.<
>
>
>
> > Precisely. And what does this say about "most people's" values?<
>
> I won't be so sure on that.
>
> I would rather say that TV producers are creating such demand 
> appealing to the material side of human nature out of corporate 
> interests and in that way ruing people's values.
>
> The same story is with public opinion polls. Are they stating or are 
> they creating public opinion?
>
> It seems to me that we are in front of a kind of "Potemkin's 
> village" – that we see the things as someone, out of an interest, 
> want to present them to us and not as they really are.
>
> Kind regards,
> Anton
>
> http://www.bartleby.com/61/0/P0480000.html
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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