Todd Gitlin
Todd Gitlin
Todd Gitlinis an American sociologist, political writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He has written widely on the mass media, politics, intellectual life and the arts, for both popular and scholarly publications...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSociologist
CountryUnited States of America
Todd Gitlin quotes about
anxious confused generally life people threatened ways
People who feel that their ways of life are threatened or feel generally anxious or confused about the way things are going are disposed to look for causes.
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My book is focused on the power of the American state, not least because the government of the United States governs so much that the case could be made that everybody around the world ought to have a vote in determining some of its policies.
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It's too hot to handle. He was scathing toward Bush and it was absolutely devastating. They don't know how to handle such a pointed and aggressive criticism.
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We are in the midst of a tremendous global revolution, ... and the consequences are on a scale that are hitherto unprecedented.
american-sociologist enormity might taken
As I write at the end, if we step back and face the enormity of the torrent, then we have taken the first step to imagining what we might want to do about it.
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So every day I'm mindful as I watch the Bush crowd extend their sway into policies of every imaginable variety, and over almost every square foot of earth, that the control of the American state is a matter of urgency.
absurd american-sociologist chronic desire
The manufacture of desire isn't at the heart - if it isn't absurd to speak of a heart - of the media torrent. Chronic dissatisfaction is at the heart of the matter.
along american-sociologist appear available bring change however ourselves people retrograde
The only people available to change the world are the people now living in it, with all the beliefs they bring along - however retrograde those beliefs may appear to those of us who see ourselves as enlightened.
access journalism
Access journalism has become the ends, not the means.
arresting attention business capture democratic desire dynamic extension gain inception news next paper people prying since
You're in the news business and you're in the business of arresting the attention of people and prying them away from what they take for granted. They must read the next day's paper and so on. While the desire to gain attention is a dynamic in journalism, it's not the only one. The predominant dynamic since journalism's inception has been the desire to capture the attention of people. Another dynamic is the extension of democratic enlightenment.
american-sociologist boys corporate doubt girls interest reports tank trends
Again, the only trends that interest the corporate boys and girls are demographic and businesslike. I doubt the think tank reports interest them much.
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I think we have a national attention deficit disorder, ... Because we're so itchy. We're changing the channel, the camera is constantly moving, the edits are flying thick and fast.
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I think there's a desire for results, a hard-bitten realism. The primary goal is not some sort of symbolic display, or some sort of posture or attitude, but results. If that's what it means, then I applaud the turn to practicality. Today the far right is in charge, and I don't think you can create the possibility of broad-based radicalism until you defeat the far right. Put the center in power and then you have the possibility--or the luxury--of radicalism.
address bulk fact life pressure taking
Can't address the big fact that the bulk of life is taking place under the pressure of an onslaught of images.