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b4f96b7 "Critical pessimists, such as media critics Mark Crispin Miller, Noam Chomsky, and Robert McChesney, focus primarily on the obstacles to achieving a more democratic society. In the process, they often exaggerate the power of big media in order to frighten readers into taking action. I don't disagree with their concern about media concentration, but the way they frame the debate is self-defeating insofar as it disempowers consumers even as it seeks to mobilize them. Far too much media reform rhetoric rests on melodramatic discourse about victimization and vulnerability, seduction and manipulation, "propaganda machines" and "weapons of mass deception". Again and again, this version of the media reform movement has ignored the complexity of the public's relationship to popular culture and sided with those opposed to a more diverse and participatory culture. The politics of critical utopianism is founded on a notion of empowerment; the politics of critical pessimism on a politics of victimization. One focuses on what we are doing with media, and the other on what media is doing to us. As with previous revolutions, the media reform movement is gaining momentum at a time when people are starting to feel more empowered, not when they are at their weakest." -- optimism media-studies revolution Henry Jenkins
5839b0b Nonsense has taken up residence in the heart of public debate and also in the academy. This nonsense is part of the huge fund of unreason on which the plans and schemes of optimists draw for their vitality. Nonsense confiscates meaning. It thereby puts truth and falsehood, reason and unreason, light and darkness on an equal footing. It is a blow cast in defence of intellectual freedom, as the optimists construe it, namely the freedom to believe anything at all, provided you feel better for it. light freedom meaning reason darkness optimism heart truth falsehood optimists public scheme schemes unreason feeling feel plans debate plan equal believe vitality nonsense Roger Scruton
2971c88 There was something very American about this ability to dwell constantly in the realm of the improvable superlative. progress optimism Geoff Dyer
ed0e752 "Havin loved enough and lost enough, I'm no longer searching, just opening, no longer trying to make sense of pain but trying to be a soft and sturdy home in which real things can land. These are the irritations that rub into a pearl. So we can talk for a while but then we must listen, the way rocks listen to the sea. And we can churn at all that goes wrong but then we must lay all distractions down and water every living seed. And yes, on nights like tonight I too feel along. But seldom do I face it squarely enough to see that it's a door into the endless berath that has no breather, pain poetry optimism Mark Nepo
6f72ecb I could not find any evidence that her circumstances had harmed Jane Austen's work in the slightest. That, perhaps, was the chief miracle about it. Here was a woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching. Her mind consumed all impediments. optimism liberality openness Harold Bloom
abcc582 What kind of woman was she? What kind of woman was it who called to me from that calamity on the Seventh Avenue line? What kind of woman do I love now, with a fealty that will not cease, not till my occluded arteries send their clots up to the spongy interiors in my skull and I go mute and slack? I love the kind of woman whose hair has gone gray in a not terribly flattering way, the kind who doesn't even notice how she has to keeps having to buy larger jeans, the kind who likes big cars because she doesn't like to be uncomfortable. I love this woman because she is gifted with astounding premonitory skills: no matter how uncertain, how despondent, how lost her mate feels, no matter how dire the circumstances, she nonetheless predicts that Everything will be roses. women positivity optimism Rick Moody
072ab11 A funeral is like a little game, really. You have to just play along and say the right thing and behave the right way until it's over. Be pleasant but don't smile too much; be sad but don't overdo it or the family will feel worse than they already do. Be hopeful but don't let your optimism be taken as a lack of empathy or an inability to deal with the reality. Because if anybody was to be truly honest there would be a lot of arguments, finger-pointing, tears, snot, and screaming. sympathy empathy reality honesty optimism life funerals society Cecelia Ahern
b49daf0 There's a good reason for everything, ain't there? reason optimism inspirational Rebecca McNutt
06bd501 Fritz had to stop himself from interrupting when Karl spoke about the difficulty of working. Stories are just as hard as clocks to put together, and they can go wrong just as easily--as we shall soon see with Fritz's own story in a page or two. Still, Fritz was an optimist, and Karl was a pessimist, and that makes all the difference in the world. writing optimism clockwork working pessimism difficulties Philip Pullman
a90f045 They were following their prime minister, matching their government's mood. leadership optimism William Manchester
165ce4e We have power as consumers. We can exercise that power all the time by not choosing to invest time, energy or funds to support the production of mass media images that do not reflect life-enhancing values, that undermine a love ethic. humanity change optimism love consummerism generosity society principles values bell hooks
a4f4800 The grass is always greener on the other side of personal extinction. optimism personal-extinction grass James S.A. Corey
36d2453 Many of the so-called American characteristics,' a chronicler of the [WW2 University of Minnesota starvation] experiment wrote, '--abounding energy, generosity, optimism--become intelligible as the expected behavior response of a well-fed people. optimism hunger Nathaniel Philbrick
7afb9f0 Avner had lived too long and become too canny to claim the crown of Israel for himself. leadership inspiration optimism novelty Geraldine Brooks
a7a4249 In a vision, Irie has seen a time, a time not far from now, when roots won't matter any more because they can't because they mustn't because they're too long and they're too tortuous and they're just buried too damn deep. She looks forward to it. optimism multiculturality Zadie Smith
c2e8a90 ... behind which the panting dog drooped like a dropped chamois. It was too hot to smoke, but he smoked his pipe anyway. The smoke wreathed a strange smile that Dorrigo later came to realise was fixed; determined to find the world cheery in spite of all the evidence life produced to the contrary. optimism resignation realisation Richard Flanagan
248f44e Neither my readers nor I are in the relatively sunlit uplands depicted in White Teeth anymore. But the lesson I take from this is not that the lives in that novel were illusory, but rather that progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and *reimagined* if it is to survive. progress politics optimism outlook white-teeth Zadie Smith
04b2d87 He had the patience and optimism of someone who thought Jesus was watching. optimism patience Gillian Flynn
a17e657 It is so easy to demonize free-market and the freedom to outsource and offshore because it is so much easier to see people being laid off in big bunches, which makes headlines, than to see them being hired in fives and tens by small and medium-sized companies, which rarely makes news. optimism perspective perception Thomas L. Friedman
832eb08 He showed me the lowest. I had to surmise the highest. optimism perspective John Howard Griffin
fec506c Open for sun, closed for rain, that's the poor man's weathervane. optimism Susan Cooper
a662542 I like his optimism,' I said. 'I like the way when he and some other rabbis saw a jackal in the ruins of Jerusalem, and the others began to cry, he laughed and said that just as the prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled, so the prophecy of the rebuilding would also be fulfilled. I like that. optimism temple prophecy jewish Chaim Potok
38af6e7 When a kingdom rests on it, I always expect difficulty. Then, if there is none, no blame. But if there is, one is prepared. optimism pessimism planning pragmatism strategy Geraldine Brooks
38c28bc The Problem of Life seemed to him to be solved. He looked on down the years, and he could see no troubles there of any kind whatsoever. Reason suggested that there were probably one or two knocking about somewhere, but this was no time to think of them. He examined the future, and found it good. optimism psmith the-future P.G. Wodehouse
a862d3d Attention, Kmart shoppers! Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages! You've all looked up at the night sky and seen the sparkle of millions of silver stars, wondering no doubt what it's like to be one of them... well, tonight here in glorious Ocean City, the silver light will shine in your eyes, because we all have a little magic, every one of us, and you're about to witness it up close, in the amazing abilities of some of the best magicians this side of North America! magic optimism announcement kmart magician-ocean-city silver star celebration Rebecca McNutt
d0d235e It's strange but as I grow older, I find myself developing more optimism. I keep inching toward the point where I believe that it's more difficult to have hope than it is to embrace cynicism. In the deep dark end, there's no point unless we have at least a modicum of hope. We trawl our way through the darkness hoping to find a pinpoint of light. But isn't it remarkable that the cynics of this world--the politicians, the corporations, the squinty-eyed critics--seem to think that they have a claim on intelligence? They seem to think that it's cooler, more intellectually engaging, to be miserable, that there's some sort of moral heft in cynicism. But I think a good novel can be a doorstop to despair. I also think the real bravery comes with those who are prepared to go through that door and look at the world in all its grime and torment, and still find something of value, no matter how small. optimism novel Colum McCann
cc05127 "You wanted greater things But love forces all of us down And sorrow bows us still harder. They bend us back where we began. Are there not in the hallowed night Also right things? Things that are straight and true? So I learned. For never, as mortal teachers do, Have you, my deities, Upholders of all things Led me with caution On level pathways. The gods say to humans, "Taste everything And learn by that nourishment To give thanks for all things And know what it is to be free to quit And go where you like." opportunity joy spirituality optimism life Friedrich Hölderlin
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