Mark Crispin Miller's How To Be Stupid: The Lessons

Does one truly have much knowledge on news outlets and advertisements on television? The reality behind these are studied in epistemology; a branch of philosophy which focuses on the study of knowledge, it’s validity, and scope. Channel One, a news outlet that is produced primarily for adolescents, is displayed in schools on televisions either during the morning announcements or at the end of the school day because it is believed to have some kind educational value. The program lasts for about fifteen minutes each day, and it is composed of interesting current events and news stories that are separated by several regulated advertisements. Mark Crispin Miller examines the epistemology of news and advertisements in “How to Be Stupid: The Lessons

In the section of Miller’s article titled buy the power, there are several examples that demonstrate the true use of advertisements, which enhances their manipulative nature. Miller’s epistemological interpretation is shown when he asserts, “Of all of the promises that advertising makes us, this promise of a certain rude empowerment – personal, immediate and absolute – is now the one that comes at us most often” (143). Miller argues that advertisements promise viewers immediate gratification, which leads into his next major argument of the paragraph. Later on in that paragraph Miller states, “Over and over, the product flashes into view was something that you ought to pay for not because you might enjoy it but because it promises to make you indestructible, as tough as nails, as hard as steel: a Superman or Superwoman” (143). When Miller says “it promises to make you indestructible”, it relates to his previous epistemological statement of advertisements promising viewers with immediate gratification. Miller argues that advertisements have a manipulative nature where they make viewers feel that by purchasing a product, they will have immediate gratification and feel extremely powerful and “indestructible”. In Miller’s lesson five: “You’re Ugly”, he uses a specific example

He begins the section by saying:

For it is addiction that the advertisers sell on Channel One (and everywhere else): They want to hook the kids forever, to have them needing all that junk forever, to have them all forever paying for it. While the stuff they sell does not, of course, induce a catastrophic physical dependency like heroin or crack, the way they sell it powerfully glamorizes the destructive spiritual condition of all addicts, whatever they may crave: the desperate neediness (you need it now!) and ever – more – accurate insatiability (now you need more!). (Miller