Removing all media would plunge individuals into a void enabling genuine self-knowledge

Evidence

To take an (unfortunately fantastic) example: the mere absence of all advertising and of all indoctrinating media of information and entertainment would plunge the individual into a traumatic void where he would have the chance to wonder and to think, to know himself (or rather the negative of himself) and his society. Deprived of his false fathers, leaders, friends, and representatives, he would have to learn his ABC’s again. But the words and sentences which he would form might come out very differently, and so might his aspirations and fears. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 852

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the silence books already read: the trauma-of-withdrawal theme matches One Square Inch of Silence and Deep Listening. — connects to: Media’s pseudo-realism infuses everyday life with meanings that block direct experience — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 234; Corporate media isolates people to invalidate their shared discontent — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1573
• FICTION: A thought experiment of total media absence as narrative premise—learning one’s ABC’s again as plot arc.

Broader Connections

• Media’s pseudo-realism infuses everyday life with meanings that block direct experience #corroborates (0.82) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 234