Reddit reviews The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America

One of your above links also cites https://www.amazon.com/Image-Guide-Pseudo-Events-America/dp/0679741801

which was published in 1962 ..... Almost 60 years ago, and yet here we are, driving headlong further down that rabbit hole.

Do we learn nothing? *smh*

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel Boorstin. It's about how many events in American life, particularly regarding the fame of individuals, are created by public relations and advertising. It was written in the early 60s, but the ideas are very relevant to today's world. I had never heard of it before grad school, and it made a huge impact on me.

Indeed. She's certainly not the only one. While not specifically about the "professional wrestling" aspect of the news media, I highly recommend Daniel Boorstin's "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America"... written in 1961.

The Image by Daniel J. Boorstin. It was written in 1962 and very perfectly predicts the current state of affairs in the US, particularly with respect to news media and entertainment, actually pretty depressing but a major eye opener.

It depends on what "we" care about in the future.

I think his legacy will be mixed, as all (or most) presidents' legacies are mixed. Presidential favorably is quite fluid. Ronald Reagan (hailed as a god by conservatives) is not as fondly looked at these days. Warren Harding was one of the most popular presidents when he died. Only months later when scandals came out did his popularity plummet. He's viewed as incompetent today. People like Andrew Jackson are still pissing people off on both sides. Even Lincoln, FDR, and Washington made decisions that were and still are very controversial.

He will get a lot of credit for the economic recovery. However, that recovery only really happened for the wealthy. It's also confusing, as fiscal policy was a game of chicken from 2010-2016. Congress and the president often did things that hampered the recovery by introducing massive uncertainty to markets.

I think "we" will judge our presidents based on the theories laid out in Boorstin's The Image. Psuedo-events will dominate our news and political culture over actual policy, data and governance. We will continue to judge and talk about press conferences, interesting quotes, moments and actions. We won't judge people on strategy, consequences or lasting effects of policy. This will favor Obama over the next several years, as his cerebral, confident, restrained image will be used to contrast DJT's bombastic, controversial, shoot from the hip image.

One major uncertainty of Obama is that he's really young and could still remain a force in public policy and government. Similar to Carter, Hoover, and others who lived long tenures after their presidency. He might go full Taft and go for a court spot. He's a constitutional lawyer after all. His "legacy" may be not complete at all. Who knows really.

As far as I am concerned. both Obama and Trump are presidents that greatly understand psuedo-events and the bully pulpit, and have used them highly effectively to paint pictures of themselves, their political causes and political enemies.

We'll see if history sees them kindly for it. I get a feeling that a lot of people think it's dishonest. I tend to agree with that.

read The Image by Daniel Boorstin. It's been like this for quite a while...