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Document Details : Title: As Seen on TV Author(s): BAUMAN, Zygmunt Journal: Ethical Perspectives Volume: 7 Issue: 2-3 Date: September 2000 Pages: 107-121 DOI: 10.2143/EP.7.2.503796 Abstract : Since the beginning of the invasion evaluations of the new medium's impact on human lives and on the fashion in which they are shared oscillated between cassandric and panglossian. The Cassandrians saw the medium as a next gigantic stride on the road to the totalitarian rule which society has travelled since the beginning of modern times: a Wunderwaffe of Big Brother and his henchmen, the unsurpassed and irresistible weapon of intellectual disablement, brainwashing, indoctrination and imposition of thoughtless conformity, wielded by those placed in front of the TV cameras against those sitting in front of the TV screens. The Panglossians welcomed the medium as a next gigantic stride on the road to emancipation which humanity followed since that great awakening called Enlightenment: knowledge being power, and the screen being a glass window through which the crown jewels of human wisdom can be contemplated. TV in the Panglossians' portrayal is, or is bound to become, a most powerful weapon of individual freedom of selfconstruction and self-assertion. |
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