Word: dissent
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...University has a special autonomy, and reasoned dissent plays a particularly vital part in its existence," reads the Resolution...
...second part of his book, Mr. Boorstin reveals the extent to which the Consumption Community has fostered dissent, particularly through the media...
...elaboration of our newspaper and magazine press, of radio and television, together with the American standard of living leads us also to exaggerate the importance of dissent in our society... to stimulate and accentuate dissent rather than disagreement. To push disagreement toward dissent so that we can have a more dramatic or reportable event. To push the statement of a program toward the expression of a feeling of separate ness or isolation...
Like Spiro Agnew, Boorstin calls for "more attractive programs, affirming institutions." provoking "disagreement" rather than "dissent." Yet his earlier point is undeniable: the media design their programs not to insure community values but to satisfy the public, through the advertisers, the Nielsen ratings, and more furtive psychological methods. The vicarious, cathartic and self-protective needs of the viewer must be changed; only then will the television programs be able to reflect this change. Until then, the standard-of-living society will continue to exacerbate the discontented radical minority...
Consequently, potentially constructive disagrees have been driven to dissent out of pure frustration. And now, Boorstin writes, when the spirit of dissent "seeks the dignity and privilege of disagreement" it is "entitled to neither...