The Brain-dead Megaphone Analysis
George Saunders starts his article, “The Braindead Megaphone” by first stating how he sometimes wonders how people in the year 1200 thought. Saunders then goes on to say that he does not think that the mental dialogue between someone from the year 1200 and the year 2015 would be very different. The only difference would be that now we can have virtual conversations with people that are far away through the Internet, phone, books etc. opposed to the person physically being there. In this part of the reading Sanders relates to his audience very cleverly when he says, “(sorry, sorry) I am become one of them.” (Sanders Pg. 2) Sanders then shifts gears and starts giving an account of a person at a party with a megaphone. This person with the megaphone starts talking into the megaphone giving cues and suggestions to the audience of the best spots in the room and the best things to talk about. Before the audience realizes they get caught up into the speakers cues and soon they are all talking about the same thing and acting in the same manner. Saunders compares this party situation with the public media and how they have…show more content… Who is the media? The best and brightest among us the- the most liberate and ambitious and gifted, who go out of their homes and into the best colleges, and from there to the best internships, and from there to offices throughout the nation to inform us.” (Sanders Pg. 14) The author feels a certain amount of pity towards his audience because the public has not stood up to the media and rejected their blabber and instead have accepted it, consequently making news and reports very unintelligent and insignificant. Sanders, however, does point out that people have freedom and that many of them choose to become stupid and ignorant instead of becoming intelligent and