We are "Amusing Ourselves to Death"!!!

Something is wrong with our society. America and the rest of the world have fallen under the idea that everything shown on the television and in photography are a fair representation of an entire country or state. In Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" it is very evident that Americans are growing more tolerant of the issues and political systems in our world. Neil describes several cases including the Nixon and Kennedy debate, Las Vegas as being the focus point of American spirit, and how photos and videos are a type of metaphor for its viewers.

Taft is portrayed as very fat

 Kennedy looks way better in this debate

"Amusing Ourselves to Death" sounds rather intense and it is. The first thing I thought of when I began to read this article by Neil Postman is my favorite album by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters called "Amused to Death." A very similar title. Much like Postman's article, Roger Waters emphasizes on the death and violence going on in the world and how people are becoming accustom towards these major issues by watching and listening to these articles on the T.V. and radio. The album cover is a photo of a monkey watching T.V. to emphasize the idea of "monkey see, monkey do." This shows how people are still animals deep down and how society has "been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much protest" (Postman 4). Amusing oneself to death means how the media is shaping our perception on other issues in the world. This may even include making us a lot more scared of an issue than we really should be. The media likes to expand on these issues and really blow them out of proportions. Most Americans have grown indifferent to the issues of the world and we truly "are the people amusing ourselves to death" (Postman 3). 

 Roger Water's Album Cover

Postman makes a claim that cosmetics have replaced ideology. He refers to the Kennedy and Nixon election and how Nixon was "sabotaged by makeup men" (Postman 4) because of the way he looked. Kennedy brought forth a youthful and refreshing spirit to politics, just by the way he appeared on the television. This idea of popularity through entertainment is a huge factor in the way people elect officials and business leaders. When President Taft was elected in 1909, T.V. was nonexistent and photographs were just becoming a lot more common. In today's world, America would not elect a President of such obesity as he was, even though, "The shape of a man's body is largely irrelevant to the shape of his ideas" (Postman 7). This is the society in which television has created for all Americans and the rest of the world.

Las Vegas is not the focus point of American spirit. In fact, Las Vegas is looked at as American corruption in my opinion. It is the gambling capital as well as the center for strip clubs and other degrading sexual activities. American spirit should be focused around opportunity and determination, not purely entertainment. "Las Vegas is a city entirely devoted to the idea of entertainment" (Postman 3) which is not what American spirit is all about.

I agree with Postman's idea that photos are a type of metaphor. On the other hand, I disagree with his idea that pictures "classify the world for us" (Postman 10). Take the Middle East for example. Any time the Middle East shows up in Fox News or CNN or whatever, photographs that are taken or video clips made always have guns, bombs, or dead bodies scattered everywhere. These images are not a metaphor for the rest of the Middle East. Having lived in Qatar myself, I can honestly tell you that it is one of the cleanest and friendliest places I have ever been. America has fallen under this idea of photos representing entire areas which this is not completely the case. We can not "confuse a message with a metaphor" (Postman 10) if we truly want to understand the world. 

Roger Waters, Richard Nixon, Las Vegas, and the issues in the Middle East are all examples of how our society is amusing itself to death. We are growing more and more immune to horrible news and more and more focused on the aesthetics of how people look compared to their actual intelligence. This may eventually lead to the downfall of our American society if we amuse ourselves to death.