"The common thread in the explanatory narratives spun by the mralists and experts is a belief in the intellectual deficits of a populace in veigled into an addiction to trivia. The real stories, it is said or implied, the ones a serious and intelligent public would be paying attention to, are complex. We decadent Americans are drawn to these narratives by their very simplicity --- all we postmodern consumers can understand.
According to Lakoff, the interest of American people in the lives and controversy of trivial celebrities stems from our inability to understand the more important controversies effecting the world around us. It is not that we are uninterested in the more complex; it is simply that we are too lazy to gain understanding of it. This quote is important in proving the author's point because it supports the idea that Americans are most interested in the lives of other Americans because, although it may be less significant, it is indirectly about us.
2 comments:
This assessment of the quote nails the main ideas of Lakoff's argument perfectly. Our interests in the lives of celebrities truly represents the idea that people are interested in things that embody their deep, underlying conflicts. A lot of the reason of why we don't want to grasp the complex,is that we don't want to face why we hold the identities that we do as a whole. I fully agree with Lakoff's argument and the evaluation that has been made.
This quote by Lakoff confers with most of society's preference of stories. It describes the appeal of simplistic stories to the public. The assessment of the quote is also very important. The observation points out that society prefers stories concerning others rather than themselves. This is a very important aspect of Lakoff's argument.
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