American University of Science and Technology Family Feud by Mark Miller Discussion

Read the short essay Family Feud from the book Boxed In by Mark Crispin Miller and respond to the prompt below.

PROMPT: We are all accustomed to watching game shows and not reflecting on what they might say about the world we inhabit. Consider Miller’s description of the game, the participants, and the host. Provide a brief characterization of what he believes the game reveals about Americans and their worldview. Make sure that you provide evidence for your characterization by identifying the source of your characterization from the article. Remember that you are characterizing his view, not your own.[1]

Taking into consideration the Lippmann reading and class presentations, what does Miller believe are the pictures inside the heads of the players and what is the nature of the pseudo-environment (i.e, the crafted world interposed between us and the natural world, which the players, representative of Americans more generally, inhabit)?

This exercise requires doing something that Lippmann correctly regards as difficult, namely, seeing past the daily world we occupy, since it seems so natural that there is nothing to question:

“In all we must note particularly one common factor. It is the insertion between man and the environment of a pseudo-environment. To that pseudo-environment his behavior is a response. But because it is behavior, the consequences, if they are acts, operate not in the pseudo-environment where the behavior is stimulated, but in the real environment where the action eventuates. (Lippmann 1922:10).

In sum, what does Miller believe are the “pictures in our head” and how does the game he describes give us insight into the world and the minds that the pictures reflect? In other words, what can we tell about the worlds and goals the contestants occupy and, by extension, what might that tell us about ourselves?

To have fun (and possibly be shocked by your beliefs), please visit Project Implicit at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ (Links to an external site.). This is a site that you can explore on your own. It will give you a every good sense of the nature and pervasiveness of stereotyping. Visiting the website will enhance your understanding of what we’ve discussed this week, but you do not have to write anything about experience.