252. Amusing Ourselves to Death Book Summary

<p>Can the way we consume information make us unable to tell truth from lies? Neil Postman thought so. In his book, <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0023ZLLH6?linkCode=gs2&tag=kadavynet08-20"> <em>Amusing Ourselves to Death</em></a>, Postman says everything has been turned into entertainment: Our politics, religion, news, athletics, our commerce – even our education – have all been turned into forms of entertainment. This has weakened our ability to reason about society’s important questions. In this <em>Amusing Ourselves to Death</em> book summary, I’ll break down – in my own words – why Postman believes the shift from a society built around reading, to a society built around moving pictures and music, has devolved our discourse into a dangerous level of nonsense.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --></p> <h3>America was built upon reading</h3> <p><!-- /wp:heading --><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>In 1854, in a lecture hall in Peoria, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln was in a debate. His debate opponent, Stephen A. Douglas, had just finished a three-hour speech. Lincoln reminded the audience it was 5 p.m., he himself would be speaking for at least three hours, and Douglas would get a chance to respond. He told the audience, Go home, have dinner, and come back for <em>four</em> more hours of lecture.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --></p> <h4>Is today’s technology “nothing new?”</h4> <p><!-- /wp:heading --><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Every time a new technology comes along, there are people who think the sky is falling. There are also people who say it’s nothing new. They’ll show you that old picture of men on a commuter train, with their faces buried in newspapers, or they might remind you Socrates worried people would be made forgetful by the breakthrough technology of: writing. If we think back to our own memories from ten or twenty years ago, we have to conclude that not much has changed. It’s different technology, with the same people.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --