People in distress will sometimes prefer a problem that is familiar to a solution that is not. Neil Postman More Quotes by Neil Postman More Quotes From Neil Postman Public schooling does not serve a public; it creates a pubic. Neil Postman schooling public-school doe There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory. Neil Postman escaping glory fundamentals The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in correcting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry — is not even a ”subject " — but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning. Neil Postman humility views mistake Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose. Neil Postman clear technology winning I am not a Luddite. I am suspicious of technology. I am perfectly aware of its benefits, but I also try to pay attention to some of the negative effects. Neil Postman technology trying negative I do not mean to imply that television news deliberately aims to deprive Americans of a coherent, contextual understanding of their world. I mean to say that when news is packaged as entertainment, that is the inevitable result. And in saying that the television news show entertains but does not inform, I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Neil Postman understanding doe mean My argument is limited to saying that a major new medium changes the structure of discourse; it does so by encouraging certain uses of the intellect, by favoring certain definitions of intelligence and wisdom, and by demanding a certain kind of content - in a phrase, by creating new forms of truth-telling. Neil Postman creating phrases use The effects of technology are always unpredictable. But they are not always inevitable. Neil Postman unpredictable inevitable technology Remember: in order for a perception to change one must be frustrated in one's actions or change one's purpose. Neil Postman frustrated perception order What the advertiser needs to know is not what is right about the product but what is wrong about the buyer. Neil Postman buyers knows needs [M]ost of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action. (68). Neil Postman news meaningful giving Voting, we might even say, is the next to last refuge of the politically impotent. The last refuge is, of course, giving your opinion to a pollster, who will get a version of it through a desiccated question, and then will submerge it in a Niagara of similar opinions, and convert them into--what else?--another piece of news. Thus we have here a great loop of impotence: The news elicits from you a variety of opinions about which you can do nothing except to offer them as more news, about which you can do nothing. Neil Postman news voting giving I mean to suggest that without a transcendent and honorable purpose, schooling must reach its finish, and the sooner we are done with it, the better. Neil Postman done purpose mean We had learned how to invent things, and the question of why we invent things receded in importance. The idea that if something could be done it should be done was born in the nineteenth century. And along with it, there developed a profound belief in all the principles through which invention succeeds: objectivity, efficiency, expertise, standardization, measurement, and progress. It also came to be believed that the engine of technological progress worked most efficiently when people are conceived of not as children of God or even as citizens but as consumers-that is to say, as markets. Neil Postman objectivity children ideas ...there must be a sequence to learning, that perseverance and a certain measure of perspiration are indispensable, that individual pleasures must frequently be submerged in the interests of group cohesion, and that learning to be critical and to think conceptually and rigorously do not come easily to the young but are hard-fought victories. Neil Postman perseverance victory thinking People like ourselves may see nothing wondrous in writing, but our anthropologists know how strange and magical it appears to a purely oral people - a conversation with no one and yet with everyone. What could be stranger than the silence one encounters when addressing a question to a text? What could be more metaphysically puzzling than addressing an unseen audience, as every writer of books must do? And correcting oneself because one knows that an unknown reader will disapprove or misunderstand? Neil Postman writing book people As a culture moves from orality to writing to printing to televising, its ideas of truth move with it. Neil Postman writing ideas moving Our priests and presidents, our surgeons and lawyers, our educators and newscasters need worry less about satisfying the demands of their discipline than the demands of good showmanship. Neil Postman worry-less discipline president Education Research: This is a process whereby serious educators discover knowledge that is well known to everybody, and has been for several centuries. Its principal characteristic is that no one pays any attention to it. Neil Postman research pay attention It is inescapable that every culture must negotiate with technology, whether it does so intelligently or not. A bargain is struck in which technology giveth and technology taketh away. Neil Postman technology doe culture
