Amusing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman

Is the modern world becoming more like the thoughtless society of Fahrenheit 451? In 1953, Fahrenheit 451, a classic novel written by Ray Bradbury, was published. This novel contains two main themes: censorship and technology. Their society is so engrossed in new technology that they neglect connecting to the world and the people around them. As technology continues to advance in the modern world, these aspects become more apparent. While some people believe that the world of Fahrenheit 451 is different from the modern world, society’s reliance on technology and actions regarding censorship show otherwise.

In Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, the protagonist in the book, lives in a period of time where television is imperative while literature is on the verge of eradicating. Bradbury portrays a society where entertainment is not only a distraction, but it becomes a dominant aspect in the way individuals function in society. Furthermore, Montag’s ideal world is a world that sees a concept in books rather than television. We live in a world full of advanced technology, however there are drawbacks in the midst of the benefits. Fahrenheit 451 is an example that depicts the disadvantages that comes with the overuse of technology.

Huxley’s Brave New World is a perfect depiction of twenty first century’s societal conditioning. Although Huxley envisioned his theory coming to fruition more than five decades forward, we can identify many areas in our society that Huxley speaks about. In today’s society media is the most important role in conditioning our society. How can one keep their individuality secure in a world that doesn’t allow for one express their individuality? Huxley’s extreme use of satire helps develop the idea that, Society has some how adopted this false illusion of psychological happiness through media and propaganda.

Neil Postman is deeply worried about what technology can do to a culture or, more importantly, what technology can undo in a culture.  In the case of television, Postman believes that, by happily surrendering ourselves to it, Americans are losing the ability to conduct and participate in meaningful, rational public discourse and public affairs.  Or, to put it another way, TV is undoing public discourse and, as the title of his book Amusing Ourselves to Death suggests, we are willing accomplices.

I don’t think the specific knowledge a student needs to succeed in school can be defined. It all depends on what you want to learn, what you find interesting, or simply whatever knowledge you may need to get a degree. In Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death, he devotes a whole chapter to epistemology. Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Do you ever dread going to those long lecture classes or those classes where you strictly read or write?

Among nerds and Trekkies, Neil Postman’s portrayal of the Typographic Mind perhaps sounds very much like the mind of Mr. Spock. Like the Vulcan Mind, the Typographic Mind, utilizes a logical and rational method, it is both detached and objective. Imaginably, the Vulcans were a culture submerged in the printed word. The author paints a picture of the American written word-based culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in “The Typographic Mind”. He calls this the Age of Exposition in his fourth chapter of his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. He portrays the influence on public discourse when based on the written word. It defines the content, the effects on the audience and shapes the spheres of public life in politics, religion, and

One may think that the society in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a gross representation of the future, but perhaps our society isn’t that much different. In his foreword to the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley envisioned this statement when he wrote: "To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda...." Thus, through hypnopaedic teaching (brainwashing), mandatory attendance to community gatherings, and the use of drugs to control emotions, Huxley bitterly satirized the society in which we live.

In the past, many authors have predicted what future societies will be like. Many of these authors believe in a world where the government uses technology and emotion to control their population. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the author portrays a society that is controlled by making its citizens feel satisfied. Neil Postman, a contemporary social critic, explains how Brave New World has major implications in our society today. While Postman’s assertion about books is not relevant to today, his assertion that the truth will be drowned in irrelevance and the assertion that we will live in a trivial culture has implication to today’s society.

As everyone knows society has many problems, however many do not realize that root of these problems may stem from the way they are discussed and presented. When a person compares how information was obtained and current issues were discussed prior to this century they come to find that the contrast between now and then is so outstanding. It’s completely clear why many people aren’t aware of what has been happening. The reason the difference is so profound is because our discourse has gradually been dumbed-down since the beginning of the information era, and people are treating the serious issues that arise as entertainment. The most powerful culprit being television, has being accused of causing damage to the people that were raised in the TV era. Neil Postman’s exploration of this issue in his novel written in 1985, Amusing Ourselves to Death, is a crucial hint of the consequences of being immersed in a culture that is driven by television. Even though it has been 20 years since the book was published the influx of internet only makes his novel more and more relevant to today than it was when it was written

In the ever-changing ways of the modern world, one could compare the level of control to the society of George Orwell’s 1984. The American way as we know it, is in danger of becoming 1984 as a result of the Media Censorship, Government Surveillance, and the Control of Information through Education. In 1984, Oceania is a totalitarian society in which the ruling party, Ingsoc, has full control over the media and the minds of the inhabitants. They have information control as well as hold their citizens under constant surveillance. Censorship can take place in the media such as people in charge picking and choose what they want the public to know and what they don't want to.

In today’s society, there are many distractions keeping people from acknowledging issues or topics they’d rather avoid. In the novel Brave New World, written in 1936, author Aldous Huxley constructs a dystopian society based upon distraction. Similarly, in 1948, author George Orwell created his own dystopia in the novel, 1984. Through both novels, the authors express their fears for the future. Social critic Neil Postman differentiates their visions and claims that Huxley’s vision of the future is more relevant than Orwell’s. Postman’s assertion is extremely accurate, considering that in Brave New World, the society Huxley created is full of distraction; from an obsession with sex to the constant use of drugs, these coping mechanisms are still very relevant in today’s society.

Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death is a trenchant piece of social commentary about the very nature of society at the time of his writing in the final decades of the 20th century. The book assesses the importance of television in the lives of its viewers, and denotes how that importance itself shapes those lives and, by extension, the surrounding world. The particular time in which this manuscript was published is immensely significant, since it occurred a year after 1984, which was also the title of an exceedingly dystopian novel by George Orwell. Postman's narrative alludes to similarities between the social perspective of people in 1985 and that depicted within Orwell and other dystopian novels (such as Aldus Huxley's Brave New World), to demonstrate what he views as the overall negative effects of television and the culture it has bred. He reaches this conclusion after systematically examining several historical eras (and their cultural precepts) that preceded those invoked through the age of television.

Postman’s assertion of how Huxley’s vision contains more relevance today than Orwell’s can be viewed seen through multiple examples dealing technology fulfilling our need for quick pleasure. In our current situation, Orwell’s vision has nearly no prevalence in the United States, and Huxley’s vision continues to become increasingly widespread every day that passes due to the constant expansion of a more technologically dependent country.

Imagine a world where everyone just stares emptily at screens, knowing almost nothing, and not caring to. This day might not be as far away as people think. For hundreds of years humanity has been developing into what it is today. One of the most notable advancements is that of technology. From the radio to the flat screen television; from the firework to the hydrogen bomb, technology is always progressing. Yet, humanity rarely looks at itself in the mirror to see what has come of this evolution; seeing the truth behind what technology is doing. Technology is decreasing humanity’s intellectualism and creating an unsafe society through decrease in interest in literature, increase in nuclear weaponry, and an increasing overarching sense of apathy throughout the world.

Those who recognize the harm caused by technology declare that television is slowly replacing the education and determination of mankind. With innovations such as Google and