Response from a disenchanted student

Honestly, I really didn’t follow Walter Lippmann’s paper too closely. Lippmann suffered from the same disease as Ramage, otherwise known as Pompusitus which symptoms include seven syllable words and long-winded sentences. However, what I did get out of this article was that our society is very apathetic towards the government by not participating in voting. (Unfortunately, that is very true and puts us an a disadvantage of keeping tabs on the government).

Lippmann’s view on public persuasion is much darker than Bernay’s view. He suggests that emotion is a quick way to coerce massive crowd of people with varying views into doing what you want. The chief weapon is fear. That is true. It’s a great way to get what you want from a sibling. Usually when someone is scared, the ability to think logically disappears. The responses towards fear dwindle to two responses: fight or flight. After September 11th, government security increased, people bought bomb shelters and some people stayed housebound.

Edward Bernays presentation of public manipulation is much more benign. The examples he uses as mass persuasion include civil rights and velvet hats. In page one he suggests, “Today the privilege of attempting to sway public opinion is everyone’s from the marketer, to the tree preserver. He even suggests that it’s necessary/beneficial. Finally as society becomes more used to the idea of public persuasion, they will be better equipped to fight tyranny if they would have to .

Chapter 3
Ramage presents a scale for rhetoric ranging from coercion on the left, propaganda in the middle and persuasion on the right. Later he suggests that some of the speeches on TV, particular the State of the Union Address actually fall near the coercion side of the spectrum along with threats and water torture. Although I found many of Ramage’s observations about the State of the Union Address fascinating ,such as the way congress’ applauses resembled the laughter found in sitcoms, I’m not sure if the President’s State of the Union Address can be comparable to coercion.

My first point is, not everyone watched that speech. Sure the speech was broadcasted on like twenty million channels, but Nickalodeon still played Sponge Bob.

My second point is Bush is constantly kept accountable by the media. Today more than ever before, people can find their news 24 hours a day/seven days a week. Literally every moment some reporter on the other side of the earth is chipping away at his laptop and sending in his copy of news to the editor without the government interfering.

After the decision for war occurred, much of the media protested. Images of brutally injured Iraqis flooded the papers, and pictures ’Dubya’s” head taped on a monkey‘s body peppered the internet. If someone was persuaded that the attack on Iraq was a just war, she did not have to look for to find a different viewpoint.