“To paraphrase David Riesman only slightly, in a world of printing, information is the gunpowder of the mind; hence come the censors in their austere robes to dampen the explosion.”
– Neal Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
From The Daily Doubter by Hume’s Ghost via Stu Maxwell
One reply on “QOTD: Neal Postman”
Okay, you made me pull my copy of “Amusing Ourselves To Death” from my shelf and there on pp. 95-96 is his wonderful discussion of the impact of the filming of the movie “Witness” (a personal fav of mine) on the Amish community in Lancaster County. While not exactly the same as the paraphrasing of Riesman, it still hits home.
He notes that the Amish had no idea who Harrison Ford nor the movie Star Wars were – nor did they seem to care – and concludes:
“The last time a similar conclusion was drawn is when the executive director of the American Association of Blacksmiths remarked that he had read about the automobile but he was convinced that it would have no consequences on the future of his organization.”
Rumspringa, the Amish rite of passage for teens, may be their formal way of allowing new information in through the ‘censorship’ of their isolation. . .