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A review by acsaper
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
5.0
This book is brilliant. The argument is well articulated, convincing, challenging, and certain worth great consideration.
As 1984, the year, not the book, comes and goes, Postman reflect on our advancing technological society. He finds that the most pressing concern is not the Orwellian conception of Big Brother taking over our lives. Rather, in reflection of Aldous Huxley, Postman sees American society as voluntarily acquiescing to its own self-imposed oppression. In short, that we have begun Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Postman explores how the advent of television drastically altered our epistomology, much as did the arrival of the written word. Avoiding a general scholarly critique of television, Postman explains how this new form of media has drastically altered the way that information is produced, presented, and consumed.
At the risk of losing the force behind Postman's brilliantly shaped argument, he suggests, in short, that the epistomology of television is one of entertainment. In turn, entertainment demands a sort of simplicity and communicability that necessarily eschews critical thought, reflection, and foundational learning, where forward thinking relies on a fundamental grasp of prerequisite concepts and ideas. Rather, television has reduced news, politics, and education to 'bites,' ready to be consumed by audiences that demand ever easier mastication.
The implications of this new epistomology reflect far and wide and television has become so popular, and so expansive, that it now shapes our expectation of discourse in all areas from news to politics, and education to religion. The effect of this stranglehold television has on shaping discourse, is, well, oppressive, but also self-wrought.
Three decades later, this piece is still incredibly timely. Elections, political discourse, wars, education, and religion are still shaped and delivered directly to our homes by television. One thing that Postman does not touch on is the internet, as this book precedes the phenomenon by a decade or so. While there are obviously some implications of yet a newer form of technology, much of what Postman offers is seen taken to great extreme online as individuals self-select themselves into snippets of ever more irrelevant information.
Sure, we are more stimulated than we ever have been and have more world knowledge that we could have ever dreamed. But, do you have any idea what your neighbors names are? Or when the last time you talked about a book with a friend was?
An excellent read that I'd love to talk about, whenever you get a chance to pick it up!
As 1984, the year, not the book, comes and goes, Postman reflect on our advancing technological society. He finds that the most pressing concern is not the Orwellian conception of Big Brother taking over our lives. Rather, in reflection of Aldous Huxley, Postman sees American society as voluntarily acquiescing to its own self-imposed oppression. In short, that we have begun Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Postman explores how the advent of television drastically altered our epistomology, much as did the arrival of the written word. Avoiding a general scholarly critique of television, Postman explains how this new form of media has drastically altered the way that information is produced, presented, and consumed.
At the risk of losing the force behind Postman's brilliantly shaped argument, he suggests, in short, that the epistomology of television is one of entertainment. In turn, entertainment demands a sort of simplicity and communicability that necessarily eschews critical thought, reflection, and foundational learning, where forward thinking relies on a fundamental grasp of prerequisite concepts and ideas. Rather, television has reduced news, politics, and education to 'bites,' ready to be consumed by audiences that demand ever easier mastication.
The implications of this new epistomology reflect far and wide and television has become so popular, and so expansive, that it now shapes our expectation of discourse in all areas from news to politics, and education to religion. The effect of this stranglehold television has on shaping discourse, is, well, oppressive, but also self-wrought.
Three decades later, this piece is still incredibly timely. Elections, political discourse, wars, education, and religion are still shaped and delivered directly to our homes by television. One thing that Postman does not touch on is the internet, as this book precedes the phenomenon by a decade or so. While there are obviously some implications of yet a newer form of technology, much of what Postman offers is seen taken to great extreme online as individuals self-select themselves into snippets of ever more irrelevant information.
Sure, we are more stimulated than we ever have been and have more world knowledge that we could have ever dreamed. But, do you have any idea what your neighbors names are? Or when the last time you talked about a book with a friend was?
An excellent read that I'd love to talk about, whenever you get a chance to pick it up!