Back To Year 1985, July 3, 1985

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Back To Year 1985
July 3, 1985

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) is a book by educator Neil Postman. It has been translated into eight languages and sold some 200,000 copies worldwide.

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“It is not necessary to conceal anything from a public insensible to contradiction and narcotized by technological diversions.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse, 1985 (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by RoundSparrow@lemm.ee to c/BackTo1985@lemm.ee

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[–] bazus1@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I might need a little more help with this one. You start with an iceberg, famous for its concealed mass, and title with a quote about how obfuscation isn't necessary in the 3-decade-old modern era. Are you hanging a lampshade on the idea that we, the public, won't recognize the inherent contradiction? What aspect of government are you trying to match up with the quote?

[–] RoundSparrow@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You start with an iceberg, famous for its concealed mass, and title with a quote about how obfuscation isn’t necessary in the 3-decade-old modern era.

4 decades since 1985?

I might need a little more help with this one.

The medium is H20 / water. Frozen and liquid states.

Pair it up with Neil Postman's inspiration, University of Toronto Professor Marshall McLuhan's work 1968 book (Back To The Future 1968): “One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in.” ― Marshall McLuhan, War and Peace in the Global Village, 1968

And we have some deep diving into the associative thinking web of ideas about "media ecology", "media literacy"

Irish Writer James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake is the greatest guidebook to media study ever fashioned by man." - Marshall McLuhan, Newsweek Magazine, p.56, February 28, 1966

[+] Dungrad@feddit.org 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] RoundSparrow@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It’s not necessary to talk like this

What does this mean? Nobody is talking, are you hearing voices? This is Lemmy social media, text. And you are responding to a quote from New York University professor Neil Postman, the author of a professionally edited book that was published 40 years ago. "talk like this"? You think you are in a reaction-meme community? Very confusing reply message. Can't tell if you have "context blindness" or your Lemmy app is malfunctioning or ?

Back To Year 1985
July 3, 1985

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) is a book by educator Neil Postman. It has been translated into eight languages and sold some 200,000 copies worldwide.

"There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, year 1985 BTTF