“The culture as a whole is losing its individual notes, its diversity. And this is… it's not only sad. It's devastating.”

— John Leonard

Interview with Bill Moyers http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_leonard.html, Now, PBS (28 November 2003)
Context: The culture as a whole is losing its individual notes, its diversity. And this is… it's not only sad. It's devastating. It's devastating because routine language means routine thought. And it means unquestioning thought. It means if I can't — if new words cannot occur to me and new image does not occur to me, then what I'm doing is I'm simply repeating what I've heard.
And what we hear from an overpowering cultural force and the forces of homogenization, what we hear is sell, sell, buy, buy. That's it. That is the function.

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John Leonard 42

American critic, writer, and commentator 1939–2008

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