Book Report "Amusing Ourselves to Death"

AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
By: Neil Postman

Professor Postman wrote his book in 1985, often referencing George Orwell’s book “1984” and the free world’s fear that, “Big Brother” would be watching us through television and controlling all information that society would be able to read and watch. He warns that this should not be society’s greatest fear but rather closer to Aldous Huxley’s, “Brave New World,” where society’s every need is taken care of. Where humans are genetically engineered and thinking is no longer necessary. If you have a problem, just take a “happy” (soma) pill. It’s ironic that I wasn’t familiar with the book “Brave New World,” but I now can Google it and do in a few minutes what other generations might have had to invest days to do. This is exactly what Neil Postman was prophesying for our future, he warns, “. . . our own tribe is undergoing a vast and trembling shift from the magic of writing to the magic of electronics.” He includes in that, the desire to read and gain knowledge, as well as the desire to carry on meaningful conversations.

In Media as Epistemology, he warns that we are moving from the age of knowledge and the desire to seek knowledge to the age of wanting to be continuously entertained. He would not be surprised to know that we now get our news through entertainers such as, Steve Colbert and Jon Stewart. Information, as he warns is not interesting unless embedded in an entertainment format. Unlike eras of the past where verbal communication was so much a part of how we gathered knowledge, we no longer have the time for that. We all want our information in sound bites. Wouldn’t he have been blown away by cell phones and text messaging? Television is the enemy of conversation according to Professor Postman. The art of conversation has guided people throughout history. Societies have used oral history and the lessons that are passed down from generation to generation, long before the alphabet was created. He tells us; that is how parents teach their children the rules of life, is through mnemonic devices, formulaic expressions and parables. We have become passive watchers of other people speaking or storytelling. We are great devourers of visual input and visual stimulation, but we don’t want to have to think or formulate ideas.

In Typographic America I was surprised to find out how literate Colonial America was. I knew from early American history classes that our founding fathers were prolific writers, but didn’t understand what an impact that has had on learning in America. Books, reading, and having writing skills are what have made America great. In some of the colonies, education was required and part of their religious beliefs, “From public schools shall general knowledge flow. For ‘tis the people’s sacred right to know.” Books were an important part of religious education and practicing religious and politic freedom. There was a higher literacy rate in the New World than in England. Education was the great equalizer in the New World, everyone who knew how to read and write could have a part in the political and social process of the day. Knowledge was no longer reserved for the elite; it was available for even the commonest of men. Authors were idolized like “rock stars” of today and books sold like “blockbuster movies.” Professor Postman tells his readers that religion in early America and specifically minister’s sermons played a large part in values and education.

The Typographic Mind, made me realize how captivated Americans used to be by the spoken word. I couldn’t believe anyone would listen to a debate for seven hours. We want our information today in seven minutes and the rest is commercial time. I never lived in an age without television but I always wondered what people did before television and how they got their information. Newspapers have never been a part of my life, but I do realize that there was a time when newspapers were the most important way for information to be circulated to the general public. It’s inconceivable that one man’s words could have such an impact on our nation without television being involved. It was humorous to me when Professor Postman talked about a fat person couldn’t get elected to public office today. Television has made politics all about how you look, not about the content of the message.

The Peek-a-Boo World is what we embarked on when electricity was harnessed. Neil Postman suggests that was the end of real discourse between people. Telegraphy, like cell phone text messaging, was the breakdown of meaningful conversation. We became a “context free” America. This is the age when speed of information began to creep into our culture. We suddenly could know what was happening all over the world, that day. The most compelling part of his argument in this chapter is when he points out that; “For the first time in human history, people were faced with the problem of information glut, which means that simultaneously they were faced with the problem of diminished social and political potency.” I think this means we decided we wanted the Cliff Notes version for everything. We have become a culture of only being in the moment. We don’t need to have a frame of reference or store information in memory or think too deeply. We are in the age of instant information.

The Age of Show Business, is where my generation has gotten all of its information and in some cases earliest education. The purpose of the book was to warn about what television was going to do to our society. What he must have known before his death in 2003 was that, television has taken over our lives. Its culture defines who we are and how we make choices in our lives. We have become the consumer of all things show business. Our idols and our icons are spoon fed to us by television executives and television personalities. American television, as the author points out, is all over the world. Everyone wants to emulate our Western ways. Even Sesame Street that seems so benign in content is on Professor Postman’s hit list. He basically, says it was the beginning of the end for teaching with substance. Even educators who encouraged the watching of Sesame Street would become the victims of a generation that expected to be entertained and visually stimulated at the same level that television had to offer. How flat and mundane the classroom became. Professor Postman scoffs at the “new classroom” and references the millions of dollars that were poured into the, “Voyage of the Mimi” program. His question being . . . “What is television good for?, not, What is education for?.

I found it interesting that the book doesn’t really address computers and what computer technology is doing to our society, except in the last chapter, where he talks about ‘Americans accorded it their customary mindless inattention.’ The sequel to this book, if ever written, would be how computers and microchip technology have taken over our lives. His final prophesy that I feel is so moving, ends with these thoughts. “ Until, years from now, when it will be noticed that the massive collection and speed-of-light retrieval of data have been of great value to large-scale organizations but have solved very little of importance to most people and have created at least as many problems for them as they may have solved.” I thought about my grandfather’s frequent lament that he is no longer driving the train, he is now a passenger. It seems that Neil Postman was warning us that society is heading toward being willing passengers on the “information highway,” no longer caring what we are losing along the way.