Dear Jack:

Thanks much for your helpful response to my post to Krugman--I didn't  
know that it was up there--and to your incisive reading of my book. It  
is critical that we address concerns regarding the urgent need for  
vitalizing critical public discussion and meaningful civic engagement,  
and your thinking along these lines is most useful. I have downloaded  
your "Truth Illiteracy" pamphlet in full, and will read it later  
today. I am also forwarding the link to a number of people who I think  
will find it of interest.

One of the biggest issues in need of being addressed, I think, is  
educational. The teaching of rhetoric, which used to be a keystone  
component of the curriculum in schools and universities, needs to be  
revived. While there is much talk about science and math, this area of  
study receives almost no attention.

Many people today equate "rhetoric" with calculated lying, but its  
content is far from that. Rhetoric combines the ability to gather and  
present knowledge with a capacity to understand how that knowledge can  
be put forward in a way that will resonate with people. It's not just  
the facts that are important but the way that they are put forth.   
This kind of education would not only provide people with an ability  
to pierce through material that plays on feelings while degrading the  
meaning of what is being said, but would also provide ordinary  
citizens with the knowledge of how to put their own ideas out there in  
ways that could elevate the quality of public discussion and enhance  
the possibility of public engagement.

People in a position to put pressure on schools and  
curriculum—educators, parents, students, etc.—must push for an  
education in rhetoric and media literacy, not only to empower people  
to see through the crap that masquerades as information, but to use  
the tools of public expression in ways that would make democracy more  
than just a logo for authoritarian intentions.

Let's remain in touch.

Best, SE

Stuart Ewen, Distinguished Professor
Ph.D. Programs in History and Sociology
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Department of Film & Media Studies
Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021



On Mar 21, 2009, at 10:12 PM, Jack Harich wrote:

> Stuart Ewen,
>
> I'm on page 118 of PR! By chance, today I was reading Krugman's blog  
> on "Dispair over financial policy" and saw your post: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/despair-over-financial-policy/
>
> I agree with what you said. I also noticed a theme on other posts:  
> What is Krugman's solution?
>
> PR, combined with the motivation of corporate interests to pursue  
> their own interests instead of the common good, is working all too  
> well as you point out in your work. But what can we do to counteract  
> that? What is your solution? This interests me, because my own  
> writing attempts to deal with this.
>
> So I skipped ahead and read your last chapter. An hour later I came  
> back to writing this. On page 410 you ask "What will move us beyond  
> prevailing strategies of power that are aimed at managing the human  
> climate? These are big questions. Their answers, if they are to  
> come, lie beyond the scope of this book."
>
> I notice you cover a few solution elements: "a fund to support  
> public communication," and moving "our schools ...toward the  
> development of critical media and visual literacy programs from the  
> early grades onward" using "tools for critically analyzing images."
>
> Here's where I may be able to help. See www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/010/TruthTestBrochure.pdf 
>  for a one page introduction to the Truth Test. Then see www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/010/index.htm 
>  for the Truth or Deception pamphlet. These may be examples of the  
> "tools" you are looking for.
>
> If this makes sense, then you may want to read a paper in process at www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/009/ChangeResistanceAsCrux.htm 
> . In this I use the term deception instead of PR or spin. I also  
> identify corporate interests as the dominant life form today. The  
> root cause of improper coupling (explained in the paper) is mutually  
> exclusive goals between the corporate life form and Homo sapiens.  
> This is about what your work argues. It's just that we use very  
> different terms. I then go on to present a brief sample solution.
>
> You Krugman post says "...bring in people who can imagine a  
> financial structure where the common good of humanity is the one  
> objective around which all efforts and institutions are organized."  
> This is precisely what the sample solution in the  
> ChangeResistanceAsCrux paper tries to accomplish with the sample  
> solution.
>
> Hope this helps us to somehow get society back on the road toward  
> the common good.
>
> Jack Harich
> System engineer
> www.thwink.org
>
>
>
>
>

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