Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show BusinessTelevision has conditioned us to tolerate visually entertaining material measured out in spoonfuls of time, to the detriment of rational public discourse and reasoned public affairs. In this eloquent, persuasive book, Neil Postman alerts us to the real and present dangers of this state of affairs, and offers compelling suggestions as to how to withstand the media onslaught. Before we hand over politics, education, religion, and journalism to the show business demands of the television age, we must recognize the ways in which the media shape our lives and the ways we can, in turn, shape them to serve out highest goals. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 28
Page 15
... nature is written in mathematics , he meant it only as a metaphor . Nature itself does not speak . Neither do our minds or our bodies or , more to the point of this book , our bodies politic . Our conversations about nature and about ...
... nature is written in mathematics , he meant it only as a metaphor . Nature itself does not speak . Neither do our minds or our bodies or , more to the point of this book , our bodies politic . Our conversations about nature and about ...
Page 24
... nature is written in mathe- matics . He did not say everything is . And even the truth about nature need not be expressed in mathematics . For most of hu- man history , the language of nature has been the language of myth and ritual ...
... nature is written in mathe- matics . He did not say everything is . And even the truth about nature need not be expressed in mathematics . For most of hu- man history , the language of nature has been the language of myth and ritual ...
Page 71
... nature ... [ it ] gives her the power to reproduce herself . " 4 Of course both the need and the power to draw nature have always implied reproducing nature , refashioning it to make it comprehensible and manageable . The earliest cave ...
... nature ... [ it ] gives her the power to reproduce herself . " 4 Of course both the need and the power to draw nature have always implied reproducing nature , refashioning it to make it comprehensible and manageable . The earliest cave ...
Contents
The Medium Is the Metaphor | 3 |
Media as Epistemology | 16 |
Typographic America | 30 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
advertising Aldous Huxley America amusing argument audience become believe Billy Graham called celebrities Charles Finney claims classroom coherent communication conversation course created culture Diff'rent Strokes Douglas eighteenth entertainment epistemology example exposition fact Frye Huxley idea implied intellectual irrelevant Jerry Falwell Jimmy Swaggart language learning Lincoln-Douglas debates literacy Marshall McLuhan matter means medium ment merely metaphor Mimi mind movie nature newscaster newspaper nineteenth century oral Orwell Pat Robertson photograph play preachers President printed word printing press problem public discourse question radio rational readers reason religion religious Reverend Robert Schuller rock music sense serious Sesame Street show business sion social speech story symbolic tele telegraph television commercial television program television screen television show television's thing tion tradition truth typographic viewers visual Walter Ong watch writing written word York