Live Neil Postman. Discovered him around 2016 and read many of his books. And planning to regularly reread him. So many things changed since he died but his ideas hold up pretty good.
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Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
11–20 of 352 posts
Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#12Legendary comment from the old boy Terry Davis as the top post there.
RIP
Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#13Legendary comment from the old boy Terry Davis as the top post there.
Gods true OS
Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#14The book's title is a nod to the Roger Waters album/song that deals with the same theme.
Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#15A person running for president of this country comes from show business and there are venture capitalists like Mark Andreeson who seriously talk about him as somebody who knows policy all because they can get a seat at the table.
And that should disqualify a presidential candidate… why exactly?
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Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#16A person running for president of this country comes from show business and there are venture capitalists like Mark Andreeson who seriously talk about him as somebody who knows policy all because they can get a seat at the table.
And that should disqualify a presidential candidate… why exactly?
It ain't democracy if you ain't won.
-Vocal Minority, Intellectual Minority, Minorities et al.
Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#17A person running for president of this country comes from show business and there are venture capitalists like Mark Andreeson who seriously talk about him as somebody who knows policy all because they can get a seat at the table.
A person ELECTED for president of the USA came from show business - Reagan.
As did Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#18Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#19Think more about Attention. Not about Information.
Information is exploding and global available Attention doesn't grow. People who pay attention to one thing, can't use the same time to pay attention to something else.
So govts and corps fight over this common pool of Attention using the Media (TV/Movies/Radio/Social/News/Sports/Gaming etc etc), just like they fought over land and oil and other natural resources. Media is literally used like front line troops of colonial empires in Attention capture wars.
But no one wins as long as Global Human Attention isn't given purpose. We await someone or some group to articulate that vision. Until then people working in Attention Capture fields will keep amusing us to death.
Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)
#20It is interesting that these two books essentially show the most extreme end result of the two major economic systems. Socialist authoritarian communist states gravitate towards 1984, capitalist liberal democracies turn into Brave New World.