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We dive into David Foster Wallace\u2019s sprawling 1993 essay \u201cE Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction.\u201d How do TV and new forms of media keep their hold on us when we know at some level that they\u2019re reinforcing our loneliness and passivity? That\u2019s easy, Wallace says, post-modern cool. Flatter me, let me think we\u2019re all in the joke together, give me \u201can ironic permission-slip to do what I do best whenever I feel confused and guilty: assume, inside, a sort of fetal position, a pose of passive reception to comfort, escape, reassurance.\u201d But in the years since this essay, the TV landscape has completely transformed. Has it transcended its function as a surrogate companion for lonely people, or has it just found new ways to keep us isolated and passive?

Plus, we talk about the recent new SPSP guidelines and Jon Haidt\u2019s recent essay on why he\u2019s resigning from the organization. (Sorry, Jon!)

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Links:

• The Two Fiduciary Duties of Professors - Heterodox Academy | Heterodox Academy
• SPSP DEI submission guidelines
• E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction by David Foster Wallace