In many of the best paying professions, “dispassion”, so-called, is a positive asset. Such people have cool heads, analytical ability, “objectivity” (which tends to turn both observer and observed into objects, into things).
What if the main ACTUAL product of most of news media–one developed in response to observations about what sells–is EMOTION? What if people tune into MSNBC, or Fox, or any of hundreds of other sites, for a dose of daily FEELING? Happy, sad, self-congratulatory or mad: all if it counts. Such media offer portals into forgotten dimensions of human experience.
Think about this systemically: would a system based on feeling not inherently work itself into radical antipodes who NEED each other?
Self evidently, I argue for conservative positions consistently. I view them as better because defensible in depth. Emotion is not needed. But have we been infected?
Abstraction as a pervasive problem was pointed out decades ago by others. I believe Jacqued Barzun talked about it. But would it not logically affect all cultural systems?
Interesting idea.