Todd Gitlin
Todd Gitlin
Todd Gitlinis an American sociologist, political writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He has written widely on the mass media, politics, intellectual life and the arts, for both popular and scholarly publications...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSociologist
CountryUnited States of America
able united-states process
I am concerned about how to reverse the process by which a fundamentalist right and a corporate elite were able to seize power in the United States.
party possibility states
Right now, we have no possibility of politics because we have a one-party state.
strong america may
Some fine day, Democrats may figure out how to get on the right side of the value divide - how to define America as a place of the common good and not a playground of the strong.
desire genius machines
The genius of the economic machine is in its ability to convert these indulgences into profitability. It converts desire into attention, a grip on our eyeballs and eardrums, which in turn can be marketed to advertisers.
patriotism want versions
Some versions of patriotism come close to the tribal, which we all want to surpass, and some don't.
wise names patriotism
The mobilisation which Bush has been able to perform since 11 September 2001 has to be fought - at least by Americans - in the name of a wise, honourable and democratic patriotism.
america together innocence
American movies and music deliver themes of freedom, innocence, and power that appeal to others - partly because America itself was put together out of a multiplicity of national traditions.
everyday furniture environment
Human inertia makes the everyday environment, the furniture, as it were, appear to be a given.
media psychics way-to-live
Collectively, we are in thrall to media - because they deliver to us many of the psychic goods we crave, and we know no other way to live.
thinking media
I don't think anyone in the media thinks strategically about society.
dream people care
It's an old anarchist dream that people can take care of their own lives.
song brave doe
Who of us does not recognize that the life we live, however larded with brave talk about values and thought and ideals, is not actually a life dedicated to immersion in the endless torrent of images, songs, sounds and stories?
jesus christ possibility
My position is not that John Kerry is either Jesus Christ or the prophet Mohammad. My position is that John Kerry is the possibility of restarting politics.
writing thinking media
I first came to think about media and politics in the late 1960s, having observed some distortions up close, but since then I wouldn't say that my personal experience has remained an important motive for my writing about media.