To begin, Postman argues that every medium of communication carries with it an epistemology, a theory of knowledge. For instance, "'Seeing is believing' has always a preeminent status as an epistemological axiom, but 'saying is believing,' 'reading is believing,' 'counting is believing,' 'deducing is believing,' and 'feeling is believing' are other that have risen or fallen in importance as cultures have undergone media change" (24). He demonstrates that the Jewish concept of God, with their application of the second commandment, taught them a very high form of abstract thinking. The reader must persevere during the first two chapters because his reasoning, though tight, can tend to be somewhat thick.
Beginning with chapter three, Postman gives a historical survey of America's way of thinking, as dictated by its forms of communication. America began as a typographic society. Reading and writing were valued greatly for many reasons, not the least of which was that people could read the Bible. All people recognized the value of knowledge. As a result, people would gather in droves to hear lectures and debates. For instance, people in the 1860s were captivated for 4 or 5 hours at a time by the meticulously reasoned debates between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Frequently, they even lasted for more than one day! Postman shows that "a language-centered discourse such as was characteristic of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America tends to be both content-laden and serious, all the more so when it takes its form from print" (50). A transition began, however, with the telegraph, which "made a three-pronged attack on typography's definition of discourse, introducing on a large scale irrelevance, impotence, and incoherence" (65). Hence, there arose "context-free information," mouth-sized bytes of information with no true relevance to one's life.
Along came television, which makes the "three-pronged attack" upon America's mind even fiercer. The vast majority of communication on the television has as its one underlying purpose entertainment. "No matter what is depicted or from what point of view, the overarching presumption is that it is there for our amusement and pleasure" (87). For the remainder of the book, Postman demonstrates that entertainment is necessary for the television's communication of news (even the most tragic), religion, politics, and education. In each area, information is greatly simplistic and decontextualized and requires no prior knowledge of anything. America has defeated herself like a tyrant. "Tyrants of all varieties have always known about the value of providing the masses with amusements as a means of pacifying discontent. But most of them could not have even hoped for a situation in which the masses would ignore that which does not amuse" (141). Postman's solution to the problem lies mainly within the realm of education. We must understand what the television is, "for no medium is excessively dangerous if its users understand what its dangers are" (161).
Through its popularity and resulting power, television - whose bottom-line is simply to entertain - has caused a revolution in our views of education, religion, and politics. Indeed, Postman convincingly demonstrates how we have undergone a paradigm-shift in the way that we think in general. Arguing that the very nature of the medium of television prevents us from reflecting on the material transmitted to us, Postman explains how we have ushered in the age of "disinformation." He also explains that television's effects are far-reaching, with adverse consequences on print and radio. Normally, one would disregard a 15-year old book discussing emergent technology as being horribly outdated. On the contrary, Postman's message bears even greater relevance to us today than it did to his audience in 1985.
This is a great book with an incredible power to change the way that you look at things.
But the causes of our complacency in the age of technology goes back to another time. Way back, according to Postman. And it's a hard thing to grapple with especially since they are technological revolutions that, frankly and accurately speaking, we have never known a world without.
THE PHOTOGRAPH + THE TELEGRAPH = DUMBER PEOPLES
Okay, jesting aside, the photograph is the fail-safe way of representing an image of something that to people that they would normally not have the opportunity to see. And to most individuals, this is harmless. Not to Postman. In his eyes, photographs destroys whatever creative brain cells we had to begin with. Paintings and sculptures were filled with mystery and interpretations on unlocking said qualities. But with the photograph, it's there. It does the thinking for you
The telegraph, although not in prominent use today (just substitute the internet in its place), was the baby that went out with the bathwater. Images and lightning fast communication are a deadly combination, so the story goes.
And this is tough to swallow. Photographs and long distance telephone calls would never have been invented with the intention of bringing down the social pattern of humans, right? But the fact remains, according to Postman, that is precisely what these developments are doing.
But he offers no real solution. If anything, Amusing Ourselves to Death almost acts as a hey-look-at-what-social-trend-I-just-discovered book without giving us a way out of the mess. And if every American is willing to accept that the telegraph and the photograph were menacing inventions, then maybe we can bulldoze our way towards Neil Postman's utopia. That is, if you agree with it.