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June 4, 2010

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Neil Postman wrote a book in 1984 about the problems of the cultural shift away from a predominantly typographic culture to culture in the age of television. He argues that public discourse has become more superficial and more entertainment-oriented, and that our politics have suffered as a result.

Or, as Postman puts it:
... [George] Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. [Aldous] Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.
Author's foreword: http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/post_1.html

Amusing Ourselves to Death on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

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