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
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.
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.
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.
real believe attachment
There is a fuzzy but real distinction that can and I believe should be made, between patriotism, which is attachment to a way of life, and nationalism, which is the insistence that your way of life deserves to rule over other ways of life.
satisfaction entertainment kind
Americas are, for a variety of reasons, the most adept at producing the kind of entertainment that delivers easy satisfactions.
party third-parties particular
All I will say is that there are particular features of the American constitutional system that renders a third party futile - at best.
mark century demographics
A century of convulsive change leaves huge demographic gouge marks.
thinking trying limits
I am a realist as well as an idealist, and I think that it is incumbent upon those of us in opposition to try to work within what are always arduous circumstances to stretch the limits of the possible.
able united-states process
I am concerned about how to reverse the process by which a fundamentalist right and a corporate elite were able to seize power in the United States.
party possibility states
Right now, we have no possibility of politics because we have a one-party state.
strong america may
Some fine day, Democrats may figure out how to get on the right side of the value divide - how to define America as a place of the common good and not a playground of the strong.
desire genius machines
The genius of the economic machine is in its ability to convert these indulgences into profitability. It converts desire into attention, a grip on our eyeballs and eardrums, which in turn can be marketed to advertisers.
patriotism want versions
Some versions of patriotism come close to the tribal, which we all want to surpass, and some don't.
wise names patriotism
The mobilisation which Bush has been able to perform since 11 September 2001 has to be fought - at least by Americans - in the name of a wise, honourable and democratic patriotism.