Meaning of the Megaphone

    The megaphone in George Saunders' essay "The Braindead Megaphone" is a metaphor for the censorship and control that the government and the media have over the general population.  A great example of an extreme case of this is North Korea.  The people there are told lies on a daily basis, but they believe them all because the source of the lies is somebody that they believe has all of the answers.  They only hear what he says, and he drowns out what everybody else is thinking or saying.  When Saunders says, "He has, in effect, put an intelligence ceiling on the party" it relates to how when a government forces it's ideas onto it's people, it restricts how intelligent they can be.  They lose the ability to think for themselves and to question the world around them.

    Saunders mentions the media in section five, and he says that they way they present the news lessens the viewers ability to communicate and think freely.  He says that the news anchor will read some story, but the story is pointless and common sense, but the way that they read it makes it seem like the person watching has learned something new.  The viewer then takes this "knowledge" and feels that they should do the same thing, because this figure on television has done it.  They restrict a person's ability to have an intelligent conversation and instead they just comment on things that are easily observed.  This in a way is placing an intelligence-ceiling on these people.