Missions Resources - Bibliography

Amusing ourselves to Death
Authors: Postman, Neil
ISBN: 0-14009438-5
Publisher: New York: Viking Press, 1986
Type of cover: Soft Cover

Summary: This little book will change the way you watch public discourse in North America. Postman is a sort of postmodern traditionalist: he believes in a Thomas Jefferson-style liberal democracy with small citizens controlling the political process and the public discourse; and while he is a postmodern in his gut-level political feelings, he feels that people only have the right to be postmodern if they know that their stance is not the only valid one.

Couple that with a Luddite's distain for dehumanizing economics, and a pietist's love of peace and quiet, and you've got the right mix for a rousing good polemic.

Postman isn't always correct in the blows he levels at the "infotainment" hegemony, but his words are more insightful than most writers'.

He raises issues that have to be considered, lest one be drowned in the dumbing down totalitarianism of the corporate entertainment news world. Postman is writing a dismayed letter from a world disturbingly close to the Brave New World that Huxley saw in his nightmares.