A mandarin madness of secondary discourse infects thought and sensibility. Media ruin the mind, and pointing out the culprits is sufficient. Poets, composers and painters, according to Steiner, should not be satisfied with their five-minute fame. Meanwhile, the media have produced their own immortal heroes and myths, which can compete with the traditional ones and moreover happily embroider on them. Journalism bids us invest in the bourse of momentary sensation.
Originality is antithetical to novelty.
But creativity has become fatally entangled in the academic-journalistic discourse which twines around it. In placing such emphasis on the compulsion to present oneself as shocking, new or modern and succumbing to the patterns of fashion, Steiner cannot get involved with the current use of media in art. In his view, the media still maintain themselves outside the creative process. They attach themselves like parasites onto the work of art and nibble on it from the outside. At that moment, the ecological appeal can strike a chord and give restraint a moral fundament.