Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is a book that contends that we are living in the Brave New World that Aldous Huxley predicted in 1932. Postman states that television has become our “soma” and we rely on its instant gratification to comfort us instead of connecting with others to form meaningful, intellectual bonds. He says that it isn’t all of television that is the problem, the “junk” or entertainment for the sake of entertainment is just fine and is, in fact, the thing television does the best. Postman states that it is our immediate exposure to data, advertising and in-“televisible” things that cause a rift between viewer and culture.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World says that people will give up everything for synthetic, superficial happiness. The world is an organized, methodical place where the government nurtures classes to rule and creates classes to be ruled. Everyone is indoctrinated from birth to the World State’s consumerist ideologies to support the world’s economy and the ruling classes. The society of Brave New World is superficially happy with a
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It is in the Media as Epistemology chapter that Postman discusses the difference between “harmless junk” and epistemology, which is one of the four main branches of philosophy. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, how it is attained, beliefs, and truths (Encyclopædia Britannica “Epistemology”), and it is truth that this chapter focuses on. Postman touches on Northrop Frye’s principle of resonance in which anything can become a metaphor, which creates its own truth, but Postman goes on to say that “every medium of communication has resonance” (Postman 17-18). This resonance in television is what Postman highlights as the issue; the ideas, information, truth and belief that is garnered from television taints the public