Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Audiobook
Ойындар
What happens when media and politics become forms of entertainment? As our world begins to look more and more like Orwell's 1984, Neil's Postman's essential guide to the modern media is more relevant than ever.
"It's unlikely that Trump has ever read Amusing Ourselves to Death, but his ascent would not have surprised Postman.” -CNN
Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media-from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs-it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
“A brilliant, powerful, and important book. This is an indictment that Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one.” -Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World
Пікірлер: 33
the irony that im listening to an audio version of this book lol
@okeyokey578
7 күн бұрын
yes exactly my thoughts :D
Good old times when Sesame Street was the most concerning children's media
2:22:04 Part 2 2:22:04 Chapter 6 the age of show business
I love this audio, it has helped me so much. This book is a required reading for my class. Speaker does a great job and has a voice and way of reading that keeps you listening. 6:08
@oswaldullman2145
4 ай бұрын
Television, streaming, and least of all social media are in no way adequate alternatives, much less replacements, for the learning in depth that reading offers.
@cvh.2003
3 ай бұрын
@@oswaldullman2145 I agree. I also find I retain information and better memory recall when reading a physical book. Watching, streaming, and social media I think degrade my cognition and I can't recall or retain any info I consume.
@robertsmuggles6871
2 ай бұрын
@@cvh.2003 I listen to this video over and over to remind me that we live in a constantly distracting information environment. I read books and do not have a smartfone - much to the confusion of friends & relatives who are unaware how their attention spans are gone. They struggle to sustain meaningful conversation with each other. If you are used to having thoughtful conversations with yourself, listening to their babble sounds strange - talking to them as adults doesn't work - you have to dumb it down to 8yr old territory. If you want to explore the book's chapter on the typographical age I strongly recommend a youtube "Right Makes Might - The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858" - this fully illustrates the depth of thinking implicit in the language.
@cvh.2003
2 ай бұрын
@@robertsmuggles6871 Yeah reading books is definitely the only way to expand you're worldview and to have more meaningful conversations. This audio-visual society dumbs you down through media saturation and content consumption. It's awful. I can barely recall any information I consume through short form content or long paragraph captions on an instagram. I don't watch the news or even go on media websites to learn about the stats of the world often because my mind feels like its rotting and keeping me in a trance when I read it digitally or visually on TV or some short form video
@robertsmuggles6871
2 ай бұрын
@@cvh.2003 I don't watch TV - whenever I see it, it captures me in some kind of trance or hypnosis. Exactly as you describe. I believe TV has become literally harmful but when I say this to friends they think I am nuts so I keep quiet.
2:22:00 Huxley cuts the power o-
ch 8 shuffle off to bethlehem 3:17:09 ch 9 reach out and elect someone 3:37:19 ch 10 teaching as an amusing activity 4:09:26 ch 11 the Huxleyan warning 4:32:16
4:09:22 American presidential debates of 2020s
BOOKMARK 1:22:53
Also, it should be noted that this era of entertainment has made the most irrelevant, pointless topics like celebrity gossip, pop stars, and the worst people the most serious topics of the world. Its crazy how someone might think you're weird if you've never heard of Kim Kardashian and her sex tape. Or the Amber Herd and Johnnie Depp situation. Its also worth noting that even politics has become a pop culture meme. Take for instance the 2020 Presidential Debate, or Joe Biden and his cognitive disabilities. Memes and so much Short form entertainment have been marketed to the masses as entertainment of these particular incidents. I even see topics like Aliens, Reptilians, and bizarre conspiracy theories like the flat earth, and new age woo turned into pop-culture topics that are more like entertainment for the masses. It makes me wonder if any of it is true and its just some big prank or distraction from the real world. I don't believe a lot of the information that's told on the internet because I find that I consume it rather than use it for something authentic. My cognition also seems to have gone done the last couple years because of it.
43:09 Bookmark
02:22:05
ch 8 3:17:09 ch9 3:37:22
ch 7 Now...this 2:50:24
4:10:00
ch 3 50:00
ch 2 23:38
ch 5 Peek-a-boo world 01:50:52
30:00
@moneyandgames757
2 ай бұрын
37:38
@moneyandgames757
2 ай бұрын
44:00
@moneyandgames757
Ай бұрын
2:32:00
A great shame has befallen our societies for we no longer can express ourselves with such eloquence nor it is required or expected by the listeners. The nuance and power hidden in the Logos is in the process of being irreparably lost. Not even forlorn attempts at resuscitating this paradigm of thought would be effective when directed at the public for it has forsaken the capacity to comprehend them. The Dark Ages are upon us.
@ai_is_a_great_place
4 ай бұрын
That was a really convoluted way of saying modern society has been dumbed down lol
@VancouverHoover
4 ай бұрын
Truthfully my brethren, 'tis is the epitome of churlish misanthropy to cast such insult at a poet of immeasurable skill, as betrayed by their vocabulary's girth. Pouring over a thesaurus is a suitable substitute for study in any field imaginable, and in no way does this upstanding individual need to be forced to make contact with any vegetation!
@VancouverHoover
4 ай бұрын
"Cindy Niles" would be a satisfactory pseudonym should some synthesize shameful scams on a "Senile" citizenry.
00:02:25 gets me every time