Nonstop entertainment is endangering our democracy. If our democratic government is going to survive, it needs thinking, educated, involved citizens. But continual exposure to frivolous entertainment is stunting our intellectual growth; it pumps up our appetites, and causes us to neglect our most precious legacy, our democratic government. We sit spellbound while our republic falls into the hands of commercial interests.
Our greed, gossip-mongering and thrill seeking tendencies have always been close to the surface, but now the science of marketing has us drooling like Pavlov's dogs. With the power of modern communication technology, marketers can exploit our addiction to entertainment and bathe our every waking hour in psychologically sophisticated, motivational messages. Consciously and unconsciously we are continually conditioned to consume.
The resources we devote to promoting civic virtue are minuscule in comparison with the billions of dollars that marketers have focused on our selfish side. They have our attention and they do not intend to give it up. Their job is to move product, not to create wise and thoughtful citizens. The traditions, stories, and intellectual disciplines that used to maintain our society now have less influence than the latest innovation in athletic shoes. But it doesn't have to be this way.
We can't compete with the resources of the marketers but we can take back some of what they want most, our attention. We can have more free time, free from the relentless pressure of marketing, time to think and talk and get involved in our own governing. We can start right now by turning off the entertainment for a while each day. We can take a break from the brainwashing and take back our government. With many major elections in the near future, there could be no better time to start thinking for ourselves again; our future as a democracy depends on it.
