The Quasi-Theory of Communication and the Management of Dissent

A series of Presidential actions and other events connected with the recent use of U.S. troops in Cambodia suggest a preoccupation with communication (its presence or absence, its process, and its style) that deflected and obscured the basic issue of the war by defining events in terms of a quasi-theory of communication failure. The cultural and situational bases of such a theory of communication failure as a means of explaining and coping with social problems are explored in this paper; evidence for its use in the Cambodian situation is examined; and its possible consequences are suggested. The role of symbolic reassurance in coping with public uneasiness about the war and the anti-war movement is also examined.