Neil Postman begins Amusing Ourselves to Death with a comparison of the visions presented by George Orwell in his book, 1984. Orwell warns that we will be defeated by an outwardly imposed oppression. Orwell feared those who would ban books and would deprive us of information, and that the truth would be concealed from us. He feared we would become a caged culture. Overall, he feared that what we hate will ruin us. Postman fears what we love will ruin us.
Postman attempts to show “that a great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that the content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense. The form in which ideas are expressed affects what those ideas will be.” (p. 31) “The written word endures, the spoken word disappears; and that is why writing is closer to the truth than speaking.” (p. 21)
He is referring to the period of time during which the American mind was “submitted to the sovereignty of the printing press” as the Age of Exposition. Almost all of the characteristics we associate with mature dialogue were amplified by typography. “Toward the end of the nineteenth century, for reasons I am most anxious to explain, the Age of Exposition began to pass, and the early signs of its replacement could be discerned. Its replacement was to be the Age of Show Business.” (p. 63) He then goes on to talk about photography and the telegraph and how they have provided an illusion of context for the unknown names and places.
The second part of his book shows that television’s way of knowing is uncompromisingly hostile to typography’s way of knowing. Television, in other words, is transforming our culture into one vast arena for show business. It is possible, that in the end we shall find that delightful, and decide we like it just fine. (p. 80)
Television has truly become both the media and the metaphor of American culture. On average, Americans watch about 4 hours a day of television.
As many researchers are discovering, television viewing, not only uses limited brain function, but actually might be the cause of dangerous impairment. Postman’s book was written before the explosion of the internet. If we take the television or internet away from kids they may discover the world of books.
