LCD talking and thinking

I think that almost all political talk is LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) talk. LCD talk is aimed at manipulating the maximum number of people as possible to agree with the talker.

I claim that almost all verbal exchanges on TV are LCD talk. Advertisers, political aficionados, and ideologues all use LCD talk.

LCD talk is so prevalent on TV because it produces sales. It produces sales because our schools and colleges have taught us only what to think rather than how to think. We have never been taught to be Critical Thinkers and thus the great mass of us are easily manipulated by talk that appeals to base instinctive emotions rather than to good judgment.

Success is more important than truth. Moving people to buy my commodity is more valuable than is the expression of truth. Selling is more important than truth. We have lost our sense of direction because we have allowed LCD talk to be successful.

One reader suggested that I had misstated the problem. The problem is that our LCD is too low. In other words, we must, as a group, increase our level of intellectual sophistication. We have the brain power but lack something that Emerson has written about, Self-Reliance. I suspect that we might gain some understanding of our situation if we were to read Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance".


http://www.transcendentalists.com/self_reliance_analysis.htm

The operative word is not lowest but 'common'. Television, film, magazines, etc. do not aim for the lowest common denominator but the highest common denominator, ie, the highest intellectual level that is common to the viewship or readership. The sad fact is that that common denominator is too low for many people.

A lot of it depends on what you read or watch. Read a newspaper and it is written at a fairly low level of sophistication and contains a simple vocabulary and sentence structure. Read the, Utne Reader and the vocablulary and sentence structure are of a higher level. Read, Scientific American and those levels go even higher.

It is the same with television, watch reality t.v., game shows ore 'family' shows and the level of sophistication is fairly low. Watch the Histor Channel, the Discovery Channel, Bloomberg T.V., etc., and the level of sophistication is higher.

We all have our own, personal levels of comfortable conversation and these levels change according to our audience. I know I do not speak the same when I am talking to a store clerk or my neighbors as I do when talking with colleagues. When talking with colleagues I tend to use larger, less common words, specific jargon, a more complex sentence stucture, etc.. In other words, our lowest, common denominator is higher.

Frogger

I think that we can conclude the ad makers and politicians have the best read of the intellectual sophistication of the people. So, if we judge such things by the attitude of the ad maker and the politician we can be very discouraged indeed.

Your highest denominator idea might be correct. We are both, I think, saying the same thing.

The Simpsons was such a great show for the reason that it had something for everyone. Low grade, slapstick humor for the kids, lovable and funny characters and situations for the adolescents, hilarious social commentary and satire for the adults. The Simpsons were able to get all of this into a short, thirty minute show. There are plenty of television shows that do the LCD thing, Friends, Seinfeld, M.A.S.H., and one could arguably say that they dominate the cultural landscape. But really, the amount of choice one has in their cultural consumption has skyrocketed in the last few years. And it also raises the question of exactly what the purpose is of culture and entertainment. My argument is that it is a social salve for the wounds that the uncaring world inflicts upon us daily. In that sense, entertainment is doing a fantastic job of keeping America happy and productive. Asking entertainment to cater to a higher intelligence level may well backfire and drive the consumer economy into near-collapse. Great thing for people's mental enlightenment, terrible thing for their happiness. Unhappy people riot.

Asking entertainment to cater to a higher intelligence level may well backfire and drive the consumer economy into near-collapse. Great thing for people's mental enlightenment, terrible thing for their happiness. Unhappy people riot.

Anti-intellectual bias permeates our (US) culture. Mental enlightenment and unhappiness walking hand-in-hand are icons of that attitude.

I think LCD is like unhealthy food.
We don't want it, but we're too lazy to find anything better.

As Frogger pointed out the good stuff is out there, you just have to hunt.



PS - Who else besides me likes Brook White on American Idol?