The Death Of Discourse

Using fictitious dialogues to argue both sides of the issue of free speech versus publicly tempered and regulated speech, this work contends that the First Amendment to the Constitution has risen in the late-20th century, like an ill-guided individual with knife in hand, to murder a long-standing tradition of fine and meaningful discourse in the United States. What has died, the authors argue, is the essential kind of political discourse which promotes democracy, informs citizens, enlivens debate, and carries reason, method and purpose; instead we are bombarded with the cacophany of advertisement, the luridity of pornography, and the pointlessness of prime time. The narrative satirically calls upon many of the "tricks" it criticizes, being augmented by anecdotes, poetry, TV zaps, eyebites, and boxes of aphorisms resonating between high and low culture, between Plato and Geraldo and Madonna and Mahler, to make its points.