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The business of the inner life: economics, communication, consciousness and civilisation

Leslie Armour (The University of Ottawa and the Dominican College of Philosophy and Theology, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

International Journal of Social Economics

ISSN: 0306-8293

Article publication date: 1 June 2001

1305

Abstract

Communication systems are structured by economic forces which use them to optimise sales, and politicians who increasingly live by slogans and repeated sound bites. Both want people to act without much reflection, and may threaten to turn human beings into imitiations of the computers they use. Theorists first noticed that communication systems channeled goods and services, structured political geography, and created their own pictures of the world. They went on to describe communications devices which act as extensions of human senses. Now communication systems try to structure our inner lives. This paper examines reflective consciousness and its relation to civilisation. It suggests countervailing forces which make for thought and turn the ordinary aspects of life into art.

Keywords

Citation

Armour, L. (2001), "The business of the inner life: economics, communication, consciousness and civilisation", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 28 No. 5/6/7, pp. 476-505. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290110360803

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited

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