“Society is not the same thing as government”
I never said it was. If I implied it, that’s because they are on a certain level inseperable. But that’s not my main point. What I want to get across is that the sort of mindset currently governing NPR and the state alike—let’s call it the NPR mindset (i.e. contemporary American moderate leftism—also happens to be immensely culturally influential.
This is not to say the government itself, to say nothing of NPR itself, is the source of said influence. Government is of course ubiquitous, stretching way beyond its just limits. In some cases, for instance via the schools, it almost seems our society’s most important institution, more important to some even than family. But that, again, is not the main point. The main point is that the very same mindset behind the state is also dominates NPR, journalism in general, all forms of popular culture (music, tv, movies, fashion, advertising), high culture (the visual arts [painting, sculpture, architecture], literature, fine music [opera, etc.]), academia, corporate culture, charitable organizations and foundations, mainline churches, unions, and so on. Basically, every single institution responsible for diffusing ideas—that is, the intellectual community—is controlled by the NPR mindset.
That’s what I was getting at by saying NPR is society. Obviously, though, countless other mindsets permeate culture. This is especially true on the internet. One big alternate mindset, which according to its political aspect we might term conservatism, has its various cultural tentacles: in talk radio, cable news, think tanks, and so forth. From there you could go down the list, from libertarians and hardcore environmentalists to commies and anarchists to white supremacists and black nationalists.
So, yes, the NPR mindset is not society itself. However, counting government with nearly the entire mainstream non-internet intellectual world, it’s still pretty damn close.
“Society is not the same thing as government”
So, yes, the NPR mindset is not society itself. However, counting government with nearly the entire mainstream non-internet intellectual world, it’s still pretty damn close.
I never said it was. If I implied it, that’s because they are on a certain level inseperable. But that’s not my main point. What I want to get across is that the sort of mindset currently governing NPR and the state alike—let’s call it the NPR mindset (i.e. contemporary American moderate leftism—also happens to be immensely culturally influential.
Actually, the mindset of "objective" wire service journalism is precisely the definition of liberalism - for the simple reason that "liberalism" was the American creed of the promotion of liberty - until journalism redefined it into the first successful brand for socialism in America in the 1920s (date per Safire's New Political Dictionary).Journalism only awards positive labels to people who agree with journalism's perspective, and journalism's perspective is that talk is superior to action, and nothing actually matters except PR. So getting a positive label from journalism is the mark of the toady; "liberals" say things which help promote journalism, and journalists respond by saying positive things about "liberals." "Liberals" promote the idea that "society" means nothing other than government.