Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth about Bullshit
Search in google:
“There is so much bullshit that one hardly knows where to begin...”Taking no prisoners, author Laura Penny dissects—no, disembowels—the culture of globalized, supersized, consumerized bullshit, from Bush’s White House, with its “wallpaper of phony populist sloganeering,” to Big Pharma, with its “gateway prescription drugs.” With vinegar and wit, she shows us how this smorgasbord of phoniness alienates us from one another, breeds apathy, and makes us just plain stupid.Decoding the Bullshit: A Few Choice Phrases•astroturfing: the fabrication of phony grassroots concern by PR firms•Capra-corny: see Tom DeLay’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington spin on his conversion to politics from his previous calling (bug murderer)•increased productivity: business-speak for getting rid of the people who produce things•kakistocracy: government by the worst citizens; see also plutocracy, Republican Revolution•the Lady Hal: the recorded female voice that says things like “Your call is important to us”•think-of-the-childrenism: the ultimate equal-opportunity piety; see No Child Left Behind Act•The War on Some Drugs: the prohibition of venerable old substances for the benefit of the manufacturers of newfangled patented ones Publishers Weekly The odious lies of advertising and PR; "morbidly obese CEO bonuses"; news networks that are "content providers" rather than sources of journalism; "nutraceuticals," "cosmeceuticals" and lifestyle drugs; overly powerful and financially motivated insurance companies and HMOs; and, of course, the reliably unreliable politicians-Penny's political and corporate targets in this everything-and-the-kitchen-sink sendup are largely American (although she reserves some ammunition for her homeland, Canada-or, as she lovingly calls it, "Soviet Canuckistan"), and rest assured the U.S.A. comes off pretty badly in comparison to its neighbor to the north. Penny, 30, is a teaching fellow at King's College in Halifax. Her common-sense, ordinary-language observations are peppered throughout with historical context and riffs on current pop culture. (Some of the latter feel on the verge of being dated.) Penny's exemplars and analyses of official and corporate insincerity give an otherwise flip and insubstantial work some credible heft-even with the subtitle's blatant attempt to ride Harry Frankfurt's coattails. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
