Postman knocks
Neil Postman
I was talking to my friend Peter Griffin about the gloomy state of media today, when he reminded me of Neil Postman and Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Postman died in 2003 which is a shame, as he made some acute observations early on about media that I rather like. For instance, he wrote:
“Information has become a form of garbage, not only incapable of answering the most fundamental human questions but barely useful in providing coherent direction to the solution of even mundane problem.”
when talking about technology (in his “technopoly” context) and the vast amount of data generated by it.
He is right of course, but at the same time, Postman wasn’t able to envision technology sifting through the information garbage for you, it seems. That appears to be the stage where we’re at, currently: we generate vast amounts of information, so much so that there’s no point in structuring it until just before it reaches those who wish to make use of it, as we’re not sure what it will or can be utilised for.
This quote is excellent though:
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.”
Looking at the various news sites in New Zealand, and our few newspapers and TV channels, we’re already sinking in Huxley’s sea of irrelevance…