Instrumentalizing communication has destroyed our sense of truth itself
Evidence
With Dewey one must begin the analysis of mass communication from within a genuine crisis in culture, a crisis of community life, of public life. This crisis of community life derives from a loss or, better, a failure—to realize the most active principles of associative life in the Western tradition: namely, a democratic social order. … The divorce of truth from discourse and action—the instrumentalization of com- munication—has not merely increased the incidence of propaganda; it has disrupted the very notion of truth, and therefore the sense by which we take our bearings in the world is destroyed. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 378
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Arendt’s and Camus’s critiques of language’s truth-revealing function; resonates with Carey’s broader transmission-vs-ritual thesis. — connects to: Instrumentalized communication destroys the possibility of shared truth — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 378; The behavioral transmission view of communication became exhausted and academic by the 1970s — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 177; Chronic interest in communication signals a derangement of its models — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 222 (+13 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 378