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A review by jimcaserta
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
2.0
Were things better before electronic forms of communication? While Postman wrote this after the ubiquity of television, revisiting this question after social media has permeated every minute of life is also wise. I should be the target audience for Postman's work as I share much of his sentiment of worry. I have long thought that ‘the hotter the take, the less accurate and meaningful’. Hot takes on social media are worse than cable news which is worse than newspapers, which is worse than magazines, which are worse than books. However, that is a gross generalization that is devoid of context.
That Postman chose the Lincoln-Douglas debates as the pinnacle of written and spoken word struck me immediately. The debates were primarily about an institution that had been enshrined into our constitution (a document whose writers Postman similarly lauds). That institution is slavery. I bristle when a society that not just tolerated but elevated slaveowners is held as a long lost ideal we will never be able to live up to. A period where presidents led genocide of our Native Americans and felt they should be thankful for what was being done to them (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/jacksons-message-to-congress-on-indian-removal).
Imagine the quote tweets on that if Jackson had tweeted it! The other moment that alerted me was when Postman praised the participants in a debate as very serious people: Henry Kissinger, William Westmoreland and others. People I know as architects of a violent mass bombing campaign of Vietnam and surrounding countries. I have to admit that many find them to be deep thinkers, but they engage in and represent a world of realpolitik that frankly lacks humanity. Books and “serious thinking” will not prevent us from committing atrocities.
Pictures are incredibly valuable. The iconic photo of Kim Phuc illustrated what was really happening in Vietnam. Videos of police brutality showed white Americans what African Americans had been living for decades. First hand accounts of war, violence, crime do more to inform than a sanitized tome (How many Sabines are quoted in Gibbon?). However, those faster, easier, cheaper, media also bring powerful good stories. Stories of vaccines delivered, helping refugees, sharing food are also delivered in a better way through social media.
Postman also praises the ancient greek schools of Socrates, Plato & Aristotle. However that group was also not perfect. 1/4 Athenians were slaves. That group chose pure logic over experimentation and held many incredibly unscientific ideas. Rhetoric does not solve all problems and is prone to giving credence to eloquent but incorrect speakers.
There are many faults with social media and cable news, and it is doing real harm to society. However, idealizing earlier times is as fraught an endeavor as demonizing the current times. People have always been prone to demagogues and tribalism. I’ll end with a quote about kids: “they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when elders enter the room, they contradict their parents and tyrannize their teachers. Children are now tyrants.”
That quote? From Socrates.
That Postman chose the Lincoln-Douglas debates as the pinnacle of written and spoken word struck me immediately. The debates were primarily about an institution that had been enshrined into our constitution (a document whose writers Postman similarly lauds). That institution is slavery. I bristle when a society that not just tolerated but elevated slaveowners is held as a long lost ideal we will never be able to live up to. A period where presidents led genocide of our Native Americans and felt they should be thankful for what was being done to them (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/jacksons-message-to-congress-on-indian-removal).
Imagine the quote tweets on that if Jackson had tweeted it! The other moment that alerted me was when Postman praised the participants in a debate as very serious people: Henry Kissinger, William Westmoreland and others. People I know as architects of a violent mass bombing campaign of Vietnam and surrounding countries. I have to admit that many find them to be deep thinkers, but they engage in and represent a world of realpolitik that frankly lacks humanity. Books and “serious thinking” will not prevent us from committing atrocities.
Pictures are incredibly valuable. The iconic photo of Kim Phuc illustrated what was really happening in Vietnam. Videos of police brutality showed white Americans what African Americans had been living for decades. First hand accounts of war, violence, crime do more to inform than a sanitized tome (How many Sabines are quoted in Gibbon?). However, those faster, easier, cheaper, media also bring powerful good stories. Stories of vaccines delivered, helping refugees, sharing food are also delivered in a better way through social media.
Postman also praises the ancient greek schools of Socrates, Plato & Aristotle. However that group was also not perfect. 1/4 Athenians were slaves. That group chose pure logic over experimentation and held many incredibly unscientific ideas. Rhetoric does not solve all problems and is prone to giving credence to eloquent but incorrect speakers.
There are many faults with social media and cable news, and it is doing real harm to society. However, idealizing earlier times is as fraught an endeavor as demonizing the current times. People have always been prone to demagogues and tribalism. I’ll end with a quote about kids: “they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when elders enter the room, they contradict their parents and tyrannize their teachers. Children are now tyrants.”
That quote? From Socrates.