Orwell vs Huxley by the Postman

http://hiphopisread.blogspot.com/2009/07/orwell-or-huxley.html

Please follow the above link. It is such a great coupling of cartoons with Neil Postman's words on the power of media. I have posted a few quotes from his seminal work Amusing Ourselves to Death here before. If you enjoyed those, I think you will like this post as well. Go check it out.

Political Commercials are Hazardous to Intellectual Health

"I am particularly fond of John Lindsay's suggestion that political commercials be banned from television as we now ban cigarette and liquor commercials...To those who would oppose my testimony by claiming that such a ban is a clear violation of the First Amendment, I would offer a compromise: Require all political commercials to be preceded by a short statement to the effect that common sense has determined that watching political commercials is hazardous to the intellectual health of the community."

- Neil Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin Books 1985, 2005 edition. pg 159

Photos Can Lie

"When applied to the photograph, the question, Is it true? means only, Is this a reproduction of a real slice of space-time? If the answer is “Yes,” there are no grounds for argument, for it makes no sense to disagree with an unfaked photograph."

- Neil Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin Books 1985, 2005 edition. pg 73

I think photos can lie. We often believe everything that we see. However, I believe there are a lot of things that we cannot see but need to explore so that we may get closer to the truth of our existence.

"Is it true?' isn't the real question here. "What is the truth?" should be the question.

"Stuff" that makes up "The News"

"The information, the content, or, if you will, the “stuff” that makes up what is called “the news of the day” did not exist – could not exist – in a world that lacked the media to give it expression. I do not mean that things like fires, wars, murders and love affairs did not, ever and always, happen in places all over the world. I mean that lacking a technology to advertise them, people could not attend to them, could not include them in their daily business. Such information could not exist as part of the content of the culture."

- Neil Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin Books 1985, 2005 edition. pg 7

News is Inert

"But most of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action.”

- Neil Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin Books 1985, 2005 edition. Pg 68