The 19th century or typographic America was a time where modern media sources, such as television and radio did not exist. Therefore everything was either presented in written word or spoken word, by a source which could either be a book or a person. In Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman communicates that the people of the 19th century would endure very long hours of debates and speeches. These events were very long, but these people seemed genuinely interested in these events due to the fact that it would inform them on current political events. However many people began wondering how these people were able to maintain such interests in these events. Neil Postman proves in Amusing Ourselves to Death, that the qualities that the people …show more content…
Postman explains “ What kind of audience was this? Who were these people who would so cheerfully accommodate themselves to seven hours of oratory?...These were people who regarded such events as essential to their political education..”(44) Postman shows his level of astonishment in regards to the people of the 19th century being able to endure seven hours of speech. This shows that the people of the 19th century had great attention spans due to the fact they were at these debates for so long, but they weren't just here to be there, these people wanted to be there to learn and to inform themselves on the events of their …show more content…
This meant that the people of the 19th century were educated enough to know about the issues that were being discussed. The people needed to have some sort of knowledge on the issues that were being discussed in order for them to understand them fully. Neil Postman articulates the third quality in Amusing Ourselves to Death, he explains “Audiences may have been moved emotionally by Edwards’ language, but they were, first and foremost, required to understand it.” (54) Postman is explaining that in order for these people to feel emotional towards the information being conveyed to them by Edwards’, that they first must have some sort of understanding of the information. This explains that the third quality of knowledge was present. Since you have to have the knowledge of the events to feel the message.
The fourth and final quality that Postman claims that the people of the 19th century have is the ability to understand literary language. What Postman means by this is that these people were able to understand complex structures of language. The literary language is able to convey messages with more detail, today a person might be confused by the use of literary language since we are used to simpler language, but the people of the 19th century had a deeper understanding of
The Book “Amusing The Million”, written by John F. Kasson describes how the amusement parks in Coney Island changed the attitude towards new cultures in the United States. Kasson talks about the era of famous amusement parks which began in 1895 before the first world war. These amusement parks were an effort to bring together the different cultures seen in the urban cities. Coney Island was a cultural accommodation for all the people who desired adventure and excitement.
The “brief shining moment” that Kennedy was remembered for, was actually only mediocre. During Kennedy’s presidency, Kennedy had high hopes, but died before many could be authorized. However, not all of that was his fault. Many times Kennedy had pushed for reforms, but as he barely made it into office, Congress was not as accepting, pushing back on his ideas, leading to many impasses. Kennedy was may have been successful in foreign affairs, but they were also a disaster at times.
In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman makes no secret of his contempt for television. It is easy to draw a parallel between that and Jon Stewart's disdain for CNN, which he expressed freely during appearances on Crossfire and Larry King Live. Similar to how Postman felt about television, Stewart felt about CNN: each man felt that that form of media (???? Figure out the right word choice here) was causing more harm to society than it was serving the public good. When Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980, he did so in order to occupy a niche that was not being filled by television programmers.
For the United States, the mid-nineteenth century is a time when social activism in American society is reflected in the writing. These writers were determined to change the way of life, if not for themselves, for someone else. Their writings would become incite to some of the deepest issues of the time. First, social activism in America is seen in the efforts of women to gain legal and social equality as citizens and as human beings in their private lives. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wanted to change the rights of the female population.
(p. 452) This helps the audience to see that just as described in A Brave New World American’s are allowing their everyday lives to become amusements that have no substance in reality. By using this and other examples, Postman helps the audience to see the logic of his argument because they are to see the truth for themselves based on their own experience and
In The Essay “The News” Neil Postman demonstrates the problems with News on TV and the Psychology behind it of why our society continues to watch. Postman displayed many points that becuase television news is must appeal to everyone in a short amount of time; the coverage is often shallow and gives a false impression of the world. Neil Postman describes the time restrictions of (22 mins) because of commercials overtaking the news. This reflects “The News” as we know it to become a big piece of entertainment that has nothing to do with the intellectual information that affects our lives. The lack of in-depth look on News nowadays draws an Appearance vs. Reality that the News isn’t what It should be.
On November 13th, 1969, Spiro Agnew, who was the Vice President at the time, gave the speech, Television News Coverage, about how news producers are becoming too powerful (Bibliography.com.) To successfully inform his audience, he uses many rhetorical strategies to keep everyone engaged and attentive. Agnew delivered an exceptional speech by using multiple techniques such as analogies, anaphoras, parallelism, and rhetorical questions to justify this problem to his audience. To help his audience understand what is being addressed, Agnew uses analogies to connect his ideas to familiar objects.
Neil Postman and Wendell Berry state that twentieth-century Americans are losing literacy and the ability to read and write, which weakens our ability to think for ourselves. Reading, writing, and thinking are connected through everyday life and as English speakers, it is our responsibility to preserve and correctly exercise the truth and validity of the English language. With the dependency on technology, relaxed educational standards, and even potential government control, we become stripped of our independence of thinking. With no free will to think, we are vulnerable to dominance and corruption, inability to argue complexly, oversimplification, and conformity. Neil Postman sets the scene of his essay, The Typographic Mind, by opening with an explanation of the famous Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Twain places the reader in a situation that requires much pondering of meaning and deep, intelligent insight into the commonalities performed by leading political
For instance, “That slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody’s steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling ‘boils’ show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there…that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark?” (44-51). Here, the reader is able to comprehend that by contemplating about the negative aspects of the river and how it would result in certain obstacles for a pilot of a steamboat, Twains initial view of the Mississippi River was ultimately diminished. Therefore, the author contemplates whether possessing knowledge about the beauty of an aspect and its true connotation truly belittles it compared to only seeing its beauty without thinking. Likewise, Twain contemplates the position of doctors relating their possible viewpoints towards a patient with his circumstances.
One of the big examples he used was how television has affected not only children but also the school system. Postman does not show both sides to his argument, but instead he goes straight into the burden that “television may bring a gradual end to careers of school teachers” because teacher were the first to invent the printing press (pg.3). Consequently, Postman then goes on to say that teachers are blind to this reality, losers, for not seeing of the negative outcome coming their way and instead seem to be enthusiastic toward this new
Neil Postman in Chapter 1 of "Amusing Ourselves to Death" aims to show how the television can manipulate a person 's decision in politics, religion, education and turn those into entertainment. Even today Postman’s ideeas stand strong and it is true that if an information is entertaining the viewer will not look at the autenticity or what the origins of it are. Probably as expected, the more the technology advances, the more the manipulation from the television is taking place. This is done by: changing how people think, making their brain numb by not allowing them to have an opinion and interfering in their family life and in people decision-making process. The only way to save ouselves from living under the control of the television is simply
Neil Postman, an author of “the Judgement of Thamus,” addresses the profound truth, we in our age are confronted with, as well as the belief that information equals knowledge and knowledge equal wisdom. In addition, Thamus mentions the deficiencies to memory writing. He makes inaccurate judgements stating that writing would only be a burden to society. However, he doesn’t understand that there are indeed many benefits of writing to society.
One of the most valuable aspects of personality is humor – we value one’s sense of humor and make friends often based on finding certain things funny. But how and why do we consider things to be funny at all? Human beings have strived to uncover fundamental truths about human nature for centuries – even millennia – but humor itself is still yet to be pinpointed. Henri Bergson is only one of many who has attempted this feat, and his essay Laughter: an essay on the meaning of the comic from 1911 breaks down comedy into what he believes to be its essential forms and origins. While Bergson makes many valid points, Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times that was brought to screens only twenty years later seems to contradict many of Bergson’s theories, while Bergson seems to contradict even himself over the course of his essay.
Because of this fact, knowledge can be seen as a vital quality to