The genius of the economic machine is in its ability to convert these indulgences into profitability. It converts desire into attention, a grip on our eyeballs and eardrums, which in turn can be marketed to advertisers.

The moguls are driven by their respective desires for profit - period.

Who of us does not recognize that the life we live, however larded with brave talk about values and thought and ideals, is not actually a life dedicated to immersion in the endless torrent of images, songs, sounds and stories?

My position is not that John Kerry is either Jesus Christ or the prophet Mohammad. My position is that John Kerry is the possibility of restarting politics.

Mills insisted that a sociologist's proper subject was the intersection of biography and history.

Americas are, for a variety of reasons, the most adept at producing the kind of entertainment that delivers easy satisfactions.

It's an old anarchist dream that people can take care of their own lives.