Customer Reviews

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

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For anyone interested in exploring the meaning of the rapid eclipse of ordinary reality and how it is being changed and altered by the rise of the electronic media, this book is very important. From the introduction and Postman's tongue-in-cheek comments about the novel 1984, his observations regarding the cogency of British author Aldous Huxley's technotronic nightmare vision in "Brave New World" through out the book right up to its conclusion, Postman binds your interest by illustrating and documenting how the rise of the elecrtonic media and its manipulation of what you see in way of news and entertainment has inexorably changed the meanings,purposes and ultimate uses of politics, economics, and technology. As Huxley himslef warned, totalitarian societies need not arise through violent overthrow of the democracies using brutality, cruelty and violence, but can also occur whenever the citizenry is successfully deluded into apathy by petty diversions and entertainments, as well. Postman shows how the electronic media's presentation of facts and fcition in an entertaining fashion diverts us, channeling our attention, money, and energies in ways that make us much more susceptible to social, political and economic manipulation and eventual subjugation. The book is a bit difficult to read at points, but well worth a sustained effort and a little concentration. For any citizen concerned about how the media is rapidly changing the rules of political, social, and economic engagement, and what it portends for the future, this book is a must read. And follow it up with Postman's book "Technopoly", which picks up where this book leaves off.

Occasionally one stumbles across a work which perfectly summarizes an era. For example, we hail the muckracker novels, primarily "The Jungle," as a brilliant picture of the late 19th century in America; likewise, any Jonathan Edwards sermon captures the essence of Puritan New England. But Neil Postman, in "Amusing Ourselves to Death," has created not a picture, but an exposition of the state of America today. That it is an expostion, is extremely important.
Postman's thesis in this brief but articulate book consists of two tenets: (1) The form of communication, to some extent, determines (or is biased toward certain types of) content; (2) Television, as our modern-day uber-form of communication, has biases which are destructive toward the rational mind. TV teaches us to expect life to be entertaining, rather than interesting; it teaches us to expect 8-minute durations of anything and everything (anything else is beyond our attention span); it teach us to be suspicious of argument and discussion, and instead to accept facts at face value.
Furthermore - and, by far, the most important discovery Postman makes in this book - TV teaches us to live a decontextualized life. Just as a TV program has nothing to do with anything before or after it, nor the commericals inside it, we learn to view life as a series of unconnected, random events which are entertaining at best, and bear no significance toward any larger picture.
As a culture, America has lost its ability to integrate experiences into a larger whole; and Postman's explaination for part (not all) of this problem's development makes perfect sense. It certainly is true that the vast majority of Americans are perfectly happy not to develop any sort of framework or philosophy; life is simply life, and one doesn't need to consider it.
Even today's elite students, who are certainly able to integrate lessons and perform well academically, have fallen to this malady; as David Brooks pointed out in his searingly accurate article, "The Organization Kid," (Atlantic Monthly, April 2001) top-notch students no longer attempt to build any sort of moral or philosophical structure from their studies; a life lived in a context, makes no sense to the student who has grown up watching the decontextualized television screen.
It is extremely important that today's Americans take a close look at just what effects the television has had on themselves and their children; Postman's work is dead on target. We have moved, as a nation, from those who seek entertainment as a means to an end (most particularly, rest between productive work), to those who seek entertainment as an end in itself. And, as Huxley realized in Brave New World, this is the undoing of Western civilization - a prosaic fade away into an entertained oblivion. Or, as T.S. Eliot put it in "The Hollow Men," "This is the way the world ends/ not with a bang but a whimper."

Neil Postman's book 'Amusing Ourselves To Death' is an excellent look at the world today (more accurately in 1985). He explains that there is no need to fear George Orwell's vision of 1984, but rather to fear an older title of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. One which takes away freedom, the latter giving you all the freedom you want. Funny and witty, Postman gives a top rate analysis of the current media (second to McLuhan). I dont see this book as a prediction of any sort, but rather observing the direction the media of print and television is headed. Television has been given so much authority that it does not matter whats on it, so much that its on. Postman declares that television has the power to do away with books by the sheer hypnotic power that television has over print. And this, by being in a trance and reclining in our sofas to and forgetting about the world (and what the GOVT is doing) is just as fatal as the government getting involved in every aspect of our lives. This book is a nice read with some profoundness to it which will change your perspective on 1984, television and the way you live.

I agree with some other reviewers that Postman repeats himself occasionally, some of his information is dated and that some of his conclusions are obvious.

That said, I think the book is very interesting, in particular, by showing the historical progression from typography to television in America.

One of Postman's constant themes is to contrast Aldous Huxley's, "Brave New World," (1936) and George Orwell's, "1984," (1948). Orwell's novel is probably the more famous of the two; Government suppression of people, big Brother, the Party, banned books and the like are the reigning ideas. However, in Huxley's novel, people are uninterested in truth, pacified by pleasure and do not want to read. Postman rightly says Orwell's vision is restricted to countries such as China, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union. The danger for Western democracies is Huxley's world.

If you have not read these two novels, I would encourage you to read them. Cultural references to, "1984," abound and, "Brave New World," although not as well known is equally important.

Postman starts by discussing what media does to us in our understanding of truth, ideas and the like (i.e. epistemology). The philosophical impact of television vs. print is one of the most important points in the book. It serves as a specific example to illustrate the principle that the medium (or technology) is NOT neutral; certain types of media encourage certain habits of the mind.

The historical discussion covers the late 17th century to the mid 19th century. In this period, print was the only medium (besides oral communication) to be used in America. The result was that authors were famous, politicians were known by their WRITING, there were unprecedented levels of literacy and education was wide spread and popular.

Postman gives one particularly interesting example from a series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. Their opening statements were three hours, and there were lengthy involved rebuttals. That the public could listen to and understand hours of complex political argumentation tell us much about the audience of that time.

Some of Postman's conclusions on the implications print culture:

- rationality encouraged

- characterized by a coherent, orderly arrangement of facts and ideas

- advertising appealed to understanding, not emotions

All this is contrasted with the development of the telegraphy and the photography in the late 19th century. It was now possible to have advertisements that had no propositional content and decontexualize information and transport small pieces of information very rapidly.

The philosophical implications of this are great. With the spreading of much irrelevant information, impotent information and information that is incoherent, the ability to develop a worldview is damaged (worldview: a comprehensive way of understanding all of reality).

The second section of the book examines the implications of television for religion, politics and education. It is interesting but again, somewhat dated. One of the best points he makes over and over again is that television is very good at entertainment however, it cannot be made to be a vehicle for serious discourse. Television, as a medium, with frequent commercial breaks, a focus on style over substance etc cannot be used to properly discuss important issues.

It is unfortunate that Postman could not update the book to include e-mail, the Internet and the other new media that have been developed since the mid 1980's.

I enjoyed reading the history sections and the parts of other chapters that discussed the philosophical consequences of using different media (primarily print vs. electronic) most in the book.

In "Amusing Ourselves to Death," Neil Postman argues that television has become an intoxicating "command center" of American culture that has distracted from and trivialized seemingly important aspects of our lives. In journalism, religion, politics and education, Postman prophetically points out the Huxleyan onset of a 'Brave New World' of bite size, touch-and-go media bombardment, happily consumed and rarely questioned, that has invariably impacted our society's discourse and rationale.

Postman's book is an interesting and quick read examining the relationships between the primary means of communication in a society and epistemology. He traces the history of American media and American epistemology along with it to show the ways in which television, The Age of Show Business, and commercial culture have deteriorated America's capacity for public discourse. It's an intriguing thesis, handled exquisitely by Postman. Admittedly I believe that he does occasionally jump to some extreme conclusions in this book, and his insights are slightly dated (I can only imagine that his social prognosis would be even more terrifying today). However, the easy style and interesting ideas carry the reader through this book quickly and easilly, instilling ideas which will stick for long after the book is done.

Another reviewer commented that perhaps Postman neglects the idea that we can turn our television's off, or assumes that books are better than TV because they are on paper. I think that this reviewer is missing the point of the book in its epistemological investigation of the subject. You can't just turn off the TV because you've grown up with the TV, you've been programmed by the programs to think along with the TV. Because television is at the forefront of our culture, there are certain mental skills which are fostered and others which are ignored which effects the way that we think, that's what epistemology is. It's not as easy as just turning it off or watching it less because it's already there, it's already in you and in your head and every aspect of the culture is driven by it. What is required is an awareness, a critical questioning to wake-up our culture and not just sit passively by while the TV tells us what the truth is, and the criteria by which we should define the truth.

This book is not exhaustive in the subject matter, but like I said it's an easy read, packed with important ideas, and a perfect jumping off point for further media studies. I would recommend this to anyone interested in engaging their media.

Neil Postman's thesis in Amusing Ourselves to Death is simple. In his eye-opening work, he demonstrates "how forms of public discourse regulate and even dictate what kind of content can issue from such forms" (6). In other words, the way something is communicated controls what is actually being communicated. The forms of media are not merely neutral channels through which facts and ideas flow. Those forms themselves either taint or enhance the message. Based on this premise, Postman demonstrates the dumbing influences that the television has had upon modern American minds. By doing so, he contends that a culture based on words is superior to one based on pictures. The book is an apology for reading. Though it was published in 1985, it has equal, if not more, relevance to us today.

To begin, Postman argues that every medium of communication carries with it an epistemology, a theory of knowledge. For instance, "`Seeing is believing' has always a preeminent status as an epistemological axiom, but `saying is believing,' `reading is believing,' `counting is believing,' `deducing is believing,' and `feeling is believing' are other that have risen or fallen in importance as cultures have undergone media change" (24). He demonstrates that the Jewish concept of God, with their application of the second commandment, taught them a very high form of abstract thinking. The reader must persevere during the first two chapters because his reasoning, though tight, can tend to be somewhat thick.

Beginning with chapter three, Postman gives a historical survey of America's way of thinking, as dictated by its forms of communication. America began as a typographic society. Reading and writing were valued greatly for many reasons, not the least of which was that people could read the Bible. All people recognized the value of knowledge. As a result, people would gather in droves to hear lectures and debates. For instance, people in the 1860s were captivated for 4 or 5 hours at a time by the meticulously reasoned debates between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Frequently, they even lasted for more than one day! Postman shows that "a language-centered discourse such as was characteristic of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America tends to be both content-laden and serious, all the more so when it takes its form from print" (50). A transition began, however, with the telegraph, which "made a three-pronged attack on typography's definition of discourse, introducing on a large scale irrelevance, impotence, and incoherence" (65). Hence, there arose "context-free information," mouth-sized bytes of information with no true relevance to one's life.

Along came television, which makes the "three-pronged attack" upon America's mind even fiercer. The vast majority of communication on the television has as its one underlying purpose entertainment. "No matter what is depicted or from what point of view, the overarching presumption is that it is there for our amusement and pleasure" (87). For the remainder of the book, Postman demonstrates that entertainment is necessary for the television's communication of news (even the most tragic), religion, politics, and education. In each area, information is greatly simplistic and decontextualized and requires no prior knowledge of anything. America has defeated herself like a tyrant. "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" (141). Postman's solution to the problem lies mainly within the realm of education. We must understand what the television is, "for no medium is excessively dangerous if its users understand what its dangers are" (161).

Although George Orwell's 1984 is a masterpiece and a literary classic (and quite possibly my favorite book of all time), Postman here expounds on a fact that is all-too-often overlooked: the "Brave New World" of our present modern society more closely resembles the one described in Aldous Huxley's book of the same name than in Orwell's classic. Orwell propesied that we would be beaten down by what we hate; Huxley by what we love. This is exactly what television does. And the sad thing is, most of us don't even know it. This is a book that should be required reading in our present "Age of Show Business", as Postman so succulently puts it. This book is our long-needed wake-up call. Granted, it is somewhat outdated: being published in the mid-80's, it doesn't take into account the advent of the internet (and Postman was clearly wrong about the observations he makes in the book about the potential of the computer.) Nevertheless, this is a real and biting commentary on our present brain-dead society. Aside from shortening our attention spans, zapping our leisure time, and feeding us dumbed-down information in tiny little bite-sized 30-second news segments, television is also doing another thing, something that many of do not realize: it's chainging the very way we think and live our lives. We now live in the Age of Television. It is indisputable. We not only want our education to be entertaining, we expect it - one might even say we REQUIRE it. Aside from any intellectual pretensions which this may bypass, it is degrading our minds to the detriment. Postman hits home when he states in his book that Americans are the most entertained people in the Western World, and the least well-informed. We are led to believe by television news segments (packaged as entertainment, just like the latest sitcom or drama) that we are learning something, when, in fact, we are merely being distracted. As Huxley set forth in Brave New World, the worst form of tyranny (or the best, for the despot) is where you submit to it voluntarily - and you don't even know it's happening. Such is the reality of television. He also points out the fact, which some other reviewers here have failed to notice, that merely turning off the TV does not solve the problem. It has already taken its toll; we are already in its grip. What difference does it make to the TV society as a whole if one solitary person turns their set off? It already affects the way we think and live every day - one might even say it CONTROLS it. This is a very serious proposition, which many of us would take care to notice. The argument seems irrefutable, and there also seems to be no solution. About the only way one can think of us escaping from this predicament is if everyone turns off their TV (you see? - it has gotten to the point where we can't even say the whole word, anymore), reads this book, and wakes up.

As a side note, I became aware of this book through Roger Waters album Amused To Death, which was in part inspired by this book. I believe this album to be a musical masterpiece, and reccomend it to anyone who enjoys this book.

Postman's _Amusing Ourselves to Death_ was published in 1985. A lot has changed in fifteen years. Satellite dishes have rapidly expanded the choices of consumers who have grown up with the television as the centerpiece of family life. The internet has created a new virtual culture, redefining our understanding of "community."

What has not changed is the continuing effect that the medium of television has had on public discourse. One need only reflect on the media spectacle of the Bush-Gore election, the OJ Simpson circus, or the Columbine tragedy to see that Postman's thesis remains essentially intact. Television has transformed the way we speak about politics, religion, and education, and not for the better. Entertainment is the new epistemology of the West, where the drive to delight and amuse displaces concern for critical reflection and substantive speech. It would be interesting were Postman to update this book with reflections on how the internet would alter or confirm his Huxleyian fears.

The book is very well written, a delight to read for anyone interested in exploring the tragic loss of substance in public communication. Postman is serious and concerned, but his manner does not lose sight of the humor of life. Just a sampling from the book, my favorite quote:

"Not long ago, I saw Billy Graham join with Shecky Green, Red Buttons, Dionne Warwick, Milton Berle and other theologians in a tribute to George Burns, who was celebrating himself for surviving eighty years in show business. The Reverend Graham exchanged one-liners with Burns about making preparations for Eternity. Although the Bible makes no mention of it, the Reverend Graham assured the audience that God loves those who make people laugh. It was an honest mistake. He merely mistook NBC for God." (5)

Pick up this book, and after it be sure to read _Technopoly_, a fine sequel that expands Postman's critique of our technocratic culture.

This book outlines how American culture has declined from reasonable discourse to trite, shallow and (largely uninformed) opinion-based mindlessness as a direct result of the technology we use to communicate. Written decades before the proliferation of the internet, mobile phones and instant messaging, there now can be little doubt of the validity of Neil Postman's conclusions. Sound bites, extremist talk radio, political spin and reality TV have further degraded our civility and tastes over the last 20 years. Even amongst the literate, the many uncivil and ill-conceived comments posted to Amazon support his premise.

Unfortunately, the author's proposed solutions are weak. Further, his academic and formal writing style makes for dry reading. Perhaps that was an intentionally ironic decision to be contrary to the show-business culture we have become. Thankfully, the text is sprinkled with some wry humor from time to time.

Read this book if you are interested in a prescient insight on how so many Americans have become so amazingly uninformed in the information age. And let's hope enough of us keep reading books -- and encouraging others to do so - to avoid becoming the Brave New World imagined by Huxley.