592
ROBERT BRUSTEIN
which are not moving fast enough in the stores. The movies and
TV scripts,
if
at all out of the ordinary in draft, are quickly re–
written to formula. The mass magazine articles are either pure
hackwork or an embarrassment to the writer or suffer from the
glossy vulgarity of the surrounding material.
As
for the panel
and interview shows, harmless enough in themselves, they are
always dominated by such soupy-minded moderators or long–
winded guest "personalities" that the isolated highbrow must
join the discussion on the lowest possible level. In a sense
these activities are perfectly understandable; the needs of intel–
lectuals are no different from those of anyone else. On the
other hand, we should be conscious of what we are exchang–
ing for these tantalizing rewards. In accepting them, we all be–
come Madison Avenue villains, inadvertently serving as front
men for the media monopolists whose strategy it is to absorb
what they cannot defeat, silencing critics by making them part–
ners in the general debasement of standards for profit.
To sum up, then, the allegory of American life could
be just the same as ever, even though its
dramatis personae
have lifted their faces to suit the demands of the time. The
American Everyman is no longer an exploited farmer, laborer,
or miner: he is the modern consumer, brutalized by the per–
suasive vapidity of the mass media. The Wall Street villain
is
no longer twirling his moustaches, but he is still exploiting
American resources: controlling communications, degrading
culture, and muffling opponents by impounding their organs of
expression.
If
this new exploitation masquerades under the name
of "entertainment," and if it is largely responsible for our present
affluence, it is no less enfeebling to the health of the nation, for
there are other forms of starvation besides the physical.
As
for
the Madison Avenue villain, he is not the source of this spiritual
famine, but merely its agent-in a special sense, its victim. In
our commodity society, where fame, love, wealth, and power
accrue to the most questionable enterprises, he has attained
