cornerofmadness

Full Title: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Author: Neil Postman

First Published: In the United States of America by Viking, an Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 1985

Today I would like to briefly discuss a book I first read two and a half years ago, but has undoubtedly rocked my world, shaken my perception of entertainment, and every television/Internet-connected screen in which I find myself parked and glued.

This book, published in 1985, is as relevant as ever 40 years later, despite being a critical discourse on American television and its role in society.

Postman digs into all sorts of media, none of which he bombards with more side-eye than television news, which he basically regards as the apex of brainrot back in the 1980s, and quite frankly, I think he’s right.

I grew up in America, raised on a glut of television programs and commercials. If I had read his book any time before late 2016, I would have assumed this author was just kind of poo poo and anti-tech, or perhaps I would have likened him to the same kind of people who blame violence in schools on video games. I cannot see myself reading and accepting Postman’s work before 2016.

Now? Of all authors I’ve ever read in my life, I don’t think any have predicted America’s future with haunting accuracy the way Brave New World by Aldous Huxley has. It was Postman’s work that led me to Huxley (I already read Orwell in school by the time I found Postman, but Huxley was new to me.)

The value of reading Amusing Ourselves to Death in 2025 is that it can give readers, both open-minded Americans and folks in other countries, a picture of how it came to be that we, the people, are so easily influenced and swayed by hypnotic video media, and why that might be. It’s like, most of us see it, but don’t quite have the words for it. Instead, many people would lazily dismiss this as mere ignorance/stupidity and walk away feeling superior for the sake of feeling superior, probably.

I'm not here to express a "superior" or "heightened" awareness, as it were, but I am here to encourage everyone to think about what they watch, why, and how it might affect them. I think everyone has a right to know, especially because propagandists and advertisers don't want us to. It's not in the best interest of their bloated wallets for us to think critically about media consumption.

Anyway, Postman, a man who considered himself a “media ecologist,” expressed many concerns regarding television (and many of those concerns apply to how we use the Internet as well.) He has serious doubts about its ability to educate people, especially when education is the intent. He doesn’t regard it as a good source of information at all, least of all that which we call “news.” Heck, this man Postman, especially his 1980s self, would probably argue that a solid half hour of someone swimming in poo is of higher intellectual value than Fox News from an entirely unironic point of view.

As with any nonfiction book, I wouldn’t encourage anyone to read this and take it as gospel. It’s here to help you think, open your eyes, and draw your own conclusions, which is what Postman himself would want, I believe.

Postman was a critic with plenty of critics, and rightly so, I’m sure. Even so, he’s given me so much to think about, and I don’t know for sure if he’s the driving force or just a little piece of the puzzle, but the way I watch television now is different. I don’t know if I’d call it heightened awareness or disillusionment, but I’m relieved to have a voice from the decade in which I was born to give words to much of what I’ve been thinking of news, programs, and memetic culture over the past ten years. Take Postman's work with a grain of salt if you must, but do give him a chance if social sciences and humanities are of interest to you. Thank you.