Amusing Ourselves to Death

Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

By: Neil Postman

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

In this eloquent and persuasive book, Neil Postman examines the deep and broad effects of television culture on the manner in which we conduct our public affairs, and how "entertainment values" have corrupted the very way we think.

As politics, news, religion, education, and commerce are given less and less expression in the form of the printed word, they are rapidly being reshaped to suit the requirements of television. And because television is a visual medium, whose images are most pleasurably apprehended when they are fast-moving and dynamic, discourse on television has little tolerance for argument, hypothesis, or explanation. Postman argues that public discourse, the advancing of arguments in logical order for the public good, once a hallmark of American culture, is being converted from exposition and explanation to entertainment.

©1985 Neil Postman (P)1994 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A brilliant, powerful and important book.... This is a brutal indictment Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one." ( Washington Post Book World)

"[Postman] starts where Marshall McLuhan left off, constructing his arguments with the resources of a scholar and the wit of a raconteur." ( Christian Science Monitor)

"A sustained, withering and thought-provoking attack on television and what it is doing to us.... Postman goes further than other critics in demonstrating that television represents a hostile attack on literate culture." ( Publishers Weekly)

why isnt this required reading just to let people

incredible and thought provoking. is able to be correlated to the internet now a days

We are all screwed.

With Donald Trumps ascension to the highest office in the land, the prophecy has been fulfilled.

Then As It Is Now

Great performance of a text as relevant and prophetic as Huxley's Brave New World ever was.

This guy is a true oracle...

Amazing how spot on this analysis is of TV & culture and how many completely accurate his predictions were in 1984 about what the future culture would look like. Must read if you are at all interested in understanding media bias and decline of the culture particularly in the US.

More than just homework...

Even though this book may have been written in 1984 it still, terrifyingly, applies to today's world as well. The narrator was enjoyable to listen to. The words are more easily absorbed when read out loud to me through audible and I read along. I would have read this for pleasure, even if it wasn't assigned to my in my English class. I can see the many similarities the addiction of television has which is just like technology and the internet in our cultural society today.

wow

loved this book it is a must read and gives much needed context to political discourse and the miss information spread so persuasively.

Fascinating read.

The way we choose to communicate is dissected through history. From the invention of the alphabet to modern day social media...and different ways we come across through history. From the days of oratory lectures...letter writing then emails and texts now TV and social media and how the medium we use to communicate affects the message we try to get across. Its an understanding of how we perceive ideas and the importance of the medium we choose to communicate to the world. Our ideas and thoughts are easy misinterpreted through the way we communicate and the effect it has had on society in general.

Still Incredibly Relevant

A bit dry to listen to, but that seems to be the point of the book. An interesting take, hoping to make readers aware of the changing modes of communication around us. Still relevant today as it was in '85

Eye opener

Highly recommend if you really want to think about the world we live in. The audio voice is a little numbing but content is great.

important concepts for our world

while this book is dated in the sense that Postman is addressing the effects on western epistemology with the rise of tv as the main (and model) media, the problems he is addressing are even more relevant today in the rapid expansion of social media and instant news.

I agree the book is read quickly, but if you listen to it at 0.75 speed, it is perfect. the reader is a bit monotone, but I did not find it impaired my ability to follow.

while everyone from doctors to scientists to politicians to parents bemoan the dangers of "screen time", very few address how screens as a media have influenced the place other forms of information sharing (such as books and oral traditions) and viewed and practiced. postman argues that television as a medium for information have truncated our epistemological understanding of truth, culture, and dialogue.

postman is direct, precise, and compelling. the discussions in this book need to be more deeply discussed today!