A Companion to Public Philosophy

21Welcome to Voice Land: Public Philosophy on the Radio

ANTHONY L. CASHIO

Alright, listen closely … whoever wishes to enter Voice Land must be very modest. He must surrender all finery and relinquish all external beauty, so that nothing is left but his voice. However, his voice will then be heard by thousands … simultaneously … In Voice Land there is nothing to be seen, only something to be heard.

(Benjamin 2014a, pp. 225–226)

Growing up, one of my favorite pastimes was to hop in my car and go for a long drive on meandering rural roads while listening to the radio. On the backroads, the radio stations were few and far between. The FM side of the dial offered only static, and on AM the pickings were slim – a garbled broadcast of a local high school football game or the seemingly omnipresent Rush Limbaugh Show. The self‐proclaimed “Doctor of Democracy” and “America’s Anchorman,” Rush filled the countryside with his particular vision of American life (www.rushlimbaugh.com/americas‐anchorman). In Limbaugh’s show, many listeners across the nation found a voice that articulated their own thoughts and feelings. Those ideas took root and held deep; after 32 years, Rush boasted 27 million listeners per show. Splashed in a large font across Limbaugh’s website were the words “I won’t stop until everyone agrees with me” – indicating the lack of humility and intellectual curiosity that his show embodied.

On 6 January 2021, a group of conservative insurrectionists stormed the United States ...