From a review of Richard Parker’s new biography of John Kenneth Galbraith

This struck a chord with me.

In The Affluent Society Galbraith sketched a cruel but apt cartoon of the American-as-consumer, who submits himself to the world of advertising and allows it to likewise create and sate his needs, lending him the illusion of choice and the reality of credit-card debt. Government by the free consent of the governed has given way to government by the implicit acquiescence of the adequately distracted. We don’t want to know that the world is complicated and asks our attention. We want to watch The Apprentice.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/