I would be the first to bemoan the disappearance of the independent corner bookstore (not to mention coffee shop, but don't get me started). However, I am grateful for the Borders chain for placing one particular book within my line of sight one day, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman.
This book has changed my life in many ways, not the least of which was giving me the final push to yank the plug on my cable box. I have not had anything except a DVD player hooked up to my TV for four years. I would encourage and challenge anyone to turn off their TV for a week and see for themselves what that can mean for their lives, even if they currently only watch in "moderation."
A major premise of Neil Postman's book is that TV has replaced literature as the dominant medium in America, which by its nature is a medium that demands its content to be entertaining first and foremost. The result is that Americans train their brains from infancy on TV viewing and therefore entertainment, so that entertainment has become the dominant form for all discourse. This, in turn, has affected our culture to such a degree that serious discourse is no longer possible for most Americans.
Another premise of the book is that all "news" is really entertainment at heart, and therefore no "news", no matter the medium, can be taken seriously as discourse. Postman pegs the birth of "news" to the invention of the telegraph, when something had to be created to fill the void of what amounted to dead air time to justify the expense of all that infrastructure. I would be equally curious as to when "press" and "newspaper" became synonymous, since it is entirely possible to have mainstream press devoted to single issues using lengthy discourse on exclusively relevant topics. Instead, today's press means "newspapers" which are a hodgepodge of chopped-up articles, unrelated by topic or audience or geographic locale, competing for attention amongst themselves as well as the ubiquitous advertisements choking them. The "top of the fold" resembles the cluttered and very busy TV screen during the "news." And that's the literate form of the medium!
Let's drive home Postman's two premises by examining a so-called serious program on a so-called serious network on a so-called serious medium on the most serious subject of them all. Let's examine the program "Talk of the Nation" on National Public Radio that aired last Wednesday with the primary subject being the war in Iraq:
Talk of the Nation Wednesday's show · July 11, 2007
Politics: Republicans Break Rank with Bush on Iraq
Ken Rudin, NPR's political editor, discusses the debate over Iraq and the Republicans who have distanced themselves from President Bush over the war. Also, Democrats in Congress are fighting back as the president tries to block testimony about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
Diversions: Study Debunks the Five-Second "Rule"
A recent study by Clemson University questions the scientific validity of the "Five-Second Rule." The frequently cited rule claims that as long as dropped food is picked up off the floor within five seconds, it is OK to eat. Guests and callers discuss the many caveats to this less-than-foolproof approach to food safety.
If you happened to listen to the program, you would know instantly that the program was primarily entertainment by the (pompous) musical introduction. However, even if you didn't listen to the program there are a couple of dead giveaways. The first is that it bills itself as a "show" and rightly so. The second is that the serious subject of war has a built-in "diversion" which is by design, and a necessary element to any form of serious and potentially boring entertainment (think comic relief in Shakespeare's plays).
The agenda for the program places "politics" and "diversions" side-by-side, quite blatantly and purposefully. And many times during the program the listeners were reminded that the diversion on the scientific study debunking the 5-second rule is coming up after the segment on the "serious" war debate. The show cannot afford to have its listeners become bored on the boring war segment and needs to remind them that they will be rewarded with a light-hearted look at when it's safe to eat an Oreo cookie that has fallen on the floor. I couldn't help but wonder what a soldier who's very life is dependent on public discourse and the politics of war would think of the juxtaposition of these two subjects in a one hour program.
And let's end appropriately, the way Neil Postman would have reminded us, by coaxing the fretting, thoughtful reader to ignore the impulse to act on one's thoughts with a cue to forget everything I've tried to convey -- "And now, this..."
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Darwin's Nightmare NPR style!
For those of you who haven't yet seen Darwin's Nightmare, do it!
You've missed a very dark but brilliantly done documentary on (among other things) globalization, the cycle of war in Africa, the true nature of humanitarian organizations, and the arms trade, not to mention the insanity of a global corptocracy bent on increasing the ever widening rich/poor gap.
And unless you've seen that documentary or listened to "Guns & Butter"'s numerous episodes on the ultimate causes of the "genocide" in Rwanda, Darfur, DRC, etc.,
http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=20604
you will miss the surreal naivete of tonight's Fresh Air episode on Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.
Darwin's Nightmare painstakingly portrays how the flow of cheap food and goods exploited through globalization is only possible through endless wars fueled by illegal arms, i.e. economics based on the symbiotic relationship of cheap goods traveling north while illegal arms and humanitarian aid travel south.
Fresh Air's fantasy version breathlessly tells the tale in reverse logic. Apparently the proximity of precious resources necessary for globalization to proxy wars requiring illegal arms did not createVictor Bout, Victor Bout created illegal arms and higher profit margins for globalization!
Through serendipidity alone, Victor Bout created his own industry in supplying arms *and* freighting goods. He said, "Damn, I keep dropping off arms leaving me with empty planes...hey look -- frozen fish waiting to be exported by starving Africans!"
He is the master magician too -- tricking legitimate clients like the Pentagon and the UN into using his planes to carry weapons and aid into war zones, and the EU into using his services to carry goods out of war zones, all the while also supplying illegal arms to rebels and armies alike. That devious ingenious monster Victor Bout is *creating* a vicious cycle!
You know it's rock solid logic, except for one teensy, tiny, little gnawing question I had: "Where do the rag-tag rebels and tin-pot dictators get their money to pay for the weapons?"
Profiling the 21st Century's 'Merchant of Death'
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11870855
Fresh Air from WHYY, July 11, 2007 · Russian arms dealer Victor Bout has armed Islamic extremists and sold weapons to some of the Third World's most abusive and murderous dictators and warlords — and he's known for fueling both sides of conflicts. His success is rooted in the legacy of the Cold War,whose messy unraveling left him with easy access to massive inventories of weapons and ammunition built up by the Soviets. We talk about Bout with journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, who've co-written abook about him: Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.
Update 7/31/07: Just stumbled on this apropos poem:
http://poetrywithmeaning.com/authors/Uriah%20Hamilton/5683
You've missed a very dark but brilliantly done documentary on (among other things) globalization, the cycle of war in Africa, the true nature of humanitarian organizations, and the arms trade, not to mention the insanity of a global corptocracy bent on increasing the ever widening rich/poor gap.
And unless you've seen that documentary or listened to "Guns & Butter"'s numerous episodes on the ultimate causes of the "genocide" in Rwanda, Darfur, DRC, etc.,
http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=20604
you will miss the surreal naivete of tonight's Fresh Air episode on Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.
Darwin's Nightmare painstakingly portrays how the flow of cheap food and goods exploited through globalization is only possible through endless wars fueled by illegal arms, i.e. economics based on the symbiotic relationship of cheap goods traveling north while illegal arms and humanitarian aid travel south.
Fresh Air's fantasy version breathlessly tells the tale in reverse logic. Apparently the proximity of precious resources necessary for globalization to proxy wars requiring illegal arms did not createVictor Bout, Victor Bout created illegal arms and higher profit margins for globalization!
Through serendipidity alone, Victor Bout created his own industry in supplying arms *and* freighting goods. He said, "Damn, I keep dropping off arms leaving me with empty planes...hey look -- frozen fish waiting to be exported by starving Africans!"
He is the master magician too -- tricking legitimate clients like the Pentagon and the UN into using his planes to carry weapons and aid into war zones, and the EU into using his services to carry goods out of war zones, all the while also supplying illegal arms to rebels and armies alike. That devious ingenious monster Victor Bout is *creating* a vicious cycle!
You know it's rock solid logic, except for one teensy, tiny, little gnawing question I had: "Where do the rag-tag rebels and tin-pot dictators get their money to pay for the weapons?"
Profiling the 21st Century's 'Merchant of Death'
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11870855
Fresh Air from WHYY, July 11, 2007 · Russian arms dealer Victor Bout has armed Islamic extremists and sold weapons to some of the Third World's most abusive and murderous dictators and warlords — and he's known for fueling both sides of conflicts. His success is rooted in the legacy of the Cold War,whose messy unraveling left him with easy access to massive inventories of weapons and ammunition built up by the Soviets. We talk about Bout with journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, who've co-written abook about him: Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.
Update 7/31/07: Just stumbled on this apropos poem:
http://poetrywithmeaning.com/authors/Uriah%20Hamilton/5683
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