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In the wake of yet another mass shooting, I’m left thinking of a book I read in high school. “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman.
I reference this book constantly, and I think it might even be in the top ten mind-changing books I’ve read in my short lifetime.
This book was written in the 80’s, inspired by a speech Postman gave during a panel on George Orwell’s “1984”, the panel topic being “1984 and the contemporary world”, at a book fair. (“1984” is another great read, but we’ll mainly be paralleling “Brave New World”, for this discussion.)
In short, the book describes our declining attention spans, and how everything we consume for entertainment has been about sensationalism, violence, and things meant to enrage us. It compares us more to, “A Brave New World,” where everything we love — media — is what eventually leads to our destruction. I think that we’re nearly there already.
When we are constantly enraged, angry, we become numb. And the things that should bother us & spur us into action (mass shootings, for example) have become things that we tweet, pass and share to continue the sensationalism, not to promote change or the betterment of the world.
“Amusing Ourselves to Death,” like “Brave New World,” forewarns of what happens when we become a society that is only focused on the latest big…
