Amusing Ourselves to Death

Book #2: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman



Run away from technology!

A 20 year old academic book on the problem of TV rings even more true today. Postman claims that everything in the public sphere (from education to politics) has evolved into a sort of show business, everything vying for our attention. I've read articles recently that are in tune to this idea: the attention economy, where there is so much information and things to watch, listen to, or read, that we're overwhelmed. Everything has to be entertaining, or skip it.

There is also an argument throughout the book that the tyrannical future predicted by one famous author has arrived. No, not 1984, but Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. TV has turned politics into entertainment instead of a serious discussion. Advertisements are exciting and colorful, instead of convincing and logical. Postman states:

"Tyrants of all varieties have always known about the value of providing the masses with amusements as a means of pacifying discontent. But most of them could not have even hoped for a situation in which the masses would ignore that which does not amuse...How delighted would be all the kings, czars, and fuhrers of the past (and the commissars of the present) to know that censorship is not a necessity when all political discourse takes the form of jest" (141)

I think Postman has some really great points and his book prods what TV really does and how it affects us. I highly recommend his book, although it can be a bit dry at times (it is quite academic).

However, I think he has quite the glorified idea of what a human is. He says our attention span has been all but destroyed by television (and today, the internet with its many distractions), but was it ever that good? Here's a great article about attention and the internet. Also, he claims that ads no longer convince us through logic, but through showmanship. I don't think this is a new phenomenon. Haven't we always been convinced or tricked into buying something we absolutely didn't need with a little entertainment? I'm thinking of traveling caravans and Melquiades from One Hundred Years of Solitude. Perhaps buying stuff we don't need for no reason is just a part of being human.

Postman offers an excellent critique of television and its affect on the US. I just think some of the traits he criticizes has always been around. But maybe I'm just a cynic.