In today's society, it is hard to watch a television program, read a magazine, or even see a movie, without being constantly bombarded with glossy images that promise the "good life" accompanies the consumption of a certain product.
When Boorstin claims that "advertising is the rhetoric of democracy", he is forcing us to question the images we are constantly presented.
As we have mentioned in class, advertising implies we all desire the same things out of life. As a society, I think we need to ask ourselves, "Are these things I really want? Will these things make me happier? Do these images accurately represent my values?" The relationship between Boorstin's "rhetoric of democracy" and Borgmann's device paradigm is very closely knit. Borgmann has said we are allowing technology to control us, just as we are allowing the technology of advertising dictate society's standard of living.
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