What is communication?

Communications are the institutions and forms in which ideas, information, and attitudes are transmitted and received. They might include tombs, hieroglyphics, writing, coins, cathedrals, stamps, flags, clocks, the press, the post, telegraphy, photography, cinema, telephony, photography, radio, television, cable, computer, the Internet, multimedia, virtual reality, or any other signifying medium.

Communication is a project to help an individual to reconcile self and other.

Communication cannot solve the problems of communication.

(sometimes, to solve the problem of communication, you got to stop communicating.)

The experience of the WW I proved that symbols are not just aesthetic ornaments but prime movers of social organization. Strategically cultivated perceptions lost or won battle and sent men in the trenches to their graves.

If the mass will be free of chains of iron, it must accept its chains of silver.

if the will of the people, the feste burg of democratic theory, was little more than a bog of stereotypes, censorship, inattention, and libido to be manipulated by experts and demagogues, what did that say about he rationality of the public?

Popular irrationality could be both malleable and intransigent.

Walter Lippmann argue for the replacement of popular sovereignty with expert rule.
Carl Schmitt, the kronjurist for the Nazis, thought people's faith that government done through public discussion in a parliament that reflected public opinion in general was little more than a joke.

Georg Lucas thought party organization can crystalize class consciousness which is a critical part of public opinion. Therefore, the revolutionary process was inseparable from the development of class consciousness on the part of the proletariat and hence involved choosing the right slogans and rallying cries.

Neither communist nor liberal democracy believe in the spontaneous self-organization of popular will; each gave a major role to a "vanguard," whether of social scientific experts or intellectual party leaders.


Communication, in short, was conceived of as the power to bind a far-flung populace together for good or ill; it had the stuff to make or break political order.

    Excerpt from Speaking into the Air


vanguard:
a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas: the experimental spirit of the modernist vanguard.
a position at the forefront of new developments or ideas: the prototype was in the vanguard of technical development.
the foremost part of an advancing army or naval force.