Mideastyouth interviews Read Mercer Schuchardt

In the words of home educator;

Read holds both a Masters and Doctoral degree in Media Ecology from New York University, where he wrote his dissertation on religious and corporate symbolism under the advisorship of the late Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death, The Disappearance of Childhood, etc). He has been a college professor for eight years, during which time he has lectured extensively on media, culture, and religion to university, church, high school and civic organizations. He has been published in Utne Reader, Christianity Today, the Chicago Tribune, and a variety of academic and cultural journals. He is contributing editor for The New Pantagruel (www.newpantagruel.com), founder and publisher of the award-winning film interpretation site Metaphilm (www.metaphilm.com), and is quoted in Rod Dreher’s new book Crunchy Cons and Shane Hipps new book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture.

While he is moving to Maine to write and publish his own books, he also has essays appearing in various film and pop culture anthologies, most recently Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix, The Philosophy of Film Noir, The Science Fiction Film Reader, and Mirror On America. His first book, due in August 2006 is Seeing Through Cinema: Ten Years of Film Interpretation by the Founder of Metaphilm and The Disappearance of Women: Technology, Pornography, and the Obsolescence of Gender. He and his wife Rachel homeschool their six children in rural Brooks, Maine.

Q. In a world full of events, how quickly do you get your information, being without a television? Especially since television obsolesces both the newspaper and the radio.
A. Under current digital convergence conditions, and in a 5000 channel universe, one could quite easily live without a TV or a Radio or a Web connection, and could still quite reasonably expect to hear news of significance with ten to fifteen minutes of its happening. This is what people report who experiment with “TV Turnoff Week” and is also common experience. In my life, I do have a radio and web connection, and so I am generally in tune, but don’t usually get to see the “if it bleeds, it leads” footage that most TV stations substitute for news of value.

Q. Do you think it’s advantageous when it comes to being well-resourced and “in the know”?
A. In the abstract, yes, of course - knowledge is power. In reality, however, most people experience information glut which leads to information gluttony which generally leads to empathy fatigue and on to downright indifference. Look at Yahoo.com’s homepage for evidence of this market spread of “interest” — the news right now varies from People-magazine style celebrity gossip to Israel hitting Lebanon even more aggressively. If you do your websurfing by the “most popular” articles on the site, you see that most Americans are far more interested in Brangelina than in Lebanon. The medium of the web, basing content push/pull on “popularity” is not much different than your worst high school nightmare — under these conditions, all of life becomes a “popularity contest” — witness Facebook, Friendster, Myspace, etc.

Q. Many documentaries emphasize how American media misleads its public when it comes to current events, such is the case with the most recent Israel vs. Lebanon war. How big of a role do you think this medium plays in shaping the minds of the masses?
A. I would have to agree that the American media does a superb job of making most Americans a.) ignorant/scared of foreign countries (one reason why 86% of Americans don’t have a Passport) b.) disinformed about world events, and c.) indifferent to their plights until/unless it hits either their personal interests, or more likely, can be exploited for economic gain by exploiting the extremely vulnerable American emotions. Once tapped, American emotionalism is a great provider of massive amounts of aid relief in the form of money. Altruism’s new marketing approach is to combine consumer purchasing with a “good cause” — so this week in Maine you can save a child’s life simply by purchasing a specifically branded Dairy Queen frozen drink (but you get to choose the flavor!). It’s kind of pathetic, funny, sad, and yet you figure at the same time, heck, if this gets people to give the money to a good cause, what else do you propose? Nobility? Integrity? Altruism in the actual, you know, dictionary definition of the word — which is giving something with no expectation/possibility of a return on investment. American capitalism is way beyond that, and it’s become very sophisticated now.

Q. How big of a role do you think the Internet plays, especially with thousands of Middle Easterners using blogging as a tool to express and discuss their opinions?
A. A HUGE role, on the one hand, and then again, huh? What thousands of Middle Easterners blogging their opinions? The problem is not only the American media disinformation (through conglomeration at the corporate level and marketing of news to consumer segments), but the ability to find the best sites (or blogs in this case) amidst a web universe of 1 billion different sites. So I would wager that most Americans have never seen a single one of these sites you reference. I know of a few through an American friend very committed to the situation over there, but even she is not aware of “thousands” of blogs.