Everything in our background has prepared us to know and resist a prison when the gates begin to close around us . . . But what if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture's being drained by laughter?
Interpretation
The quote highlights the struggle to address serious issues in a culture that prioritizes entertainment over meaningful discourse.
Neil Postman's quote reflects on the challenge of confronting deep societal problems when people are distracted by superficial entertainment. It suggests that while individuals may be aware of serious issues, the pervasive nature of amusement and laughter might render them ineffective in raising concerns. The metaphor of being trapped in a prison of distractions emphasizes the urgency of engaging in serious discussions, yet it questions who is willing or even able to address these critical matters in a landscape dominated by triviality.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of education and critical thinking in today's media landscape.
Television is a non graded curriculum and excludes no viewer for any reason, at any time. In other words, in doing away wtih the idea of sequenece and continuity in education, television undermines the idea that sequence and continuity have anything to do with thought itself.
Television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information - misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.
Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods.
When two human beings get together, they're co-present, there is built into it a certain responsibility we have for each other, and when people are co-present in family relationships and other relationships, that responsibility is there. You can't just turn off a person. On the Internet, you can.
A book is an attempt to make through permanent and to contribute to the great conversation conducted by authors of the past. […] The telegraph is suited only to the flashing of messages, each to be quickly replaced by a more up-to-date message. Facts push other facts into and then out of consciousness at speeds that neither permit nor require evaluation. (70)
It is not entirely true that a TV producer or reporter has complete control over the contents of programs. The interests and inclinations of the audience have as much to do with the what is on television as do the ideas of the producer and reporter.
People of character do the right thing, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world.
There is...a spiritual hunger in the world today and it cannot be satisfied...by better cars on longer credit terms.
A brushstroke of vanity is good to add into the mix, to balance your timidity. We're all blessed with a lot of timidity and a lot of worry and anxiety, and vanity is a good antidote.
Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream
Las Vegas is the only place I know where money really talks--it says, Goodbye.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, has a more direct bearing on the moral choices made by individuals or the purposes pursued by society than belief or disbelief in God.
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