November 29, 2009 TVW Author's Hour

Hedges: "Although I think that, you know, it’s been decades in the making. And I think that we have seen profound cultural transformation in American culture, or cultures. Because, you know, we once had distinct regional and ethnic cultures, these were all systematically destroyed in the early part of the 20th century by corporate interests who used mass communications as well as an understanding of human psychology to turn consumption into an inner compulsion. And with that we lost the old values of thrift, of regional identity that had it’s own iconography, esthetic expression and history, as well as diverse immigrant traditions.

From Amazon: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.

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