Public schooling does not serve a public; it creates a pubic. Neil Postman More Quotes by Neil Postman More Quotes From Neil Postman In Russia, writers with serious grievances are arrested, while in America they are merely featured on television talk shows, where all that is arrested is their development. Neil Postman russia development america Printing links the present with forever. It carries personal identity into realms unknown. Neil Postman identity links forever The past is strapped to our backs. We do not have to see it; we can always feel it. People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross. People in distress will sometimes prefer a problem that is familiar to a solution that is not. Neil Postman bridges people past Because he did not have time to read every new book in his field, the great Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski used a simple and efficient method of deciding which ones were worth his attention: Upon receiving a new book, he immediately checked the index to see if his name was cited, and how often. The more "Malinowski" the more compelling the book. No "Malinowski", and he doubted the subject of the book was anthropology at all. Neil Postman simple time book The problem in the 19th century with information was that we lived in a culture of information scarcity, and so humanity addressed that problem beginning with photography and telegraphy and the - in the 1840s. We tried to solve the problem of overcoming the limitations of space, time, and form. Neil Postman space photography humanity Build an "inclusive narrative" that goes beyond race, class, religion, etc., so that all may participate in the "the great debates". Neil Postman race may class 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. Neil Postman tvs television ideas The point is that profound but contradictory ideas may exist side by side, if they are constructed from different materials and methods. and have different purposes. Each tells us something important about where we stand in the universe, and it is foolish to insist that they must despise each other. Neil Postman important profound ideas By itself photography cannot deal with the unseen, the remote, the internal, the abstract, it does not speak of Man, only of a man ; not of Tree, only a tree. Neil Postman photography tree men Textbooks, it seems to me, are enemies of education, instruments for promoting dogmatism and trivial learning. They may save the teacher some trouble, but the trouble they inflict on the minds of students is a blight and a curse. Neil Postman mind teacher enemy The idea of taking what people call the 'entertainment culture' as a focus of study, including historical perspective, is not a bad idea. Neil Postman perspective people ideas If we may say that the Age of Andrew Jackson took political life out of the hands of aristocrats and turned it over to the masses, then we may say, with equal justification, that the Age of Television has taken politics away from the adult mind altogether. Neil Postman political taken hands The reader must come armed , in a serious state of intellectual readiness. This is not easy because he comes to the text alone. In reading, one's responses are isolated, one'sintellect thrown back on its own resourses. To be confronted by the cold abstractions of printed sentences is to look upon language bare, without the assistance of either beauty or community. Thus, reading is by its nature a serious business. It is also, of course, an essentially rational activity. Neil Postman community intellectual reading Reading is the scourge of childhood because, in a sense, it creates adulthood. Neil Postman scourge childhood reading A definition is the start of an argument, not the end of one. Neil Postman argument definitions ends Childhood is analogous to language learning. It has a biological basis but cannot be realized unless a social environment triggers and nurtures it, that is, has need of it. If a culture is dominated by a medium that requires the segregation of the young in order that they learn unnatural, specialized, and complex skills and attitudes, then childhood, in one form or another, will emerge, articulate and indispensable. Neil Postman skills attitude order '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. Neil Postman scientific-method mind mistake A metaphor is not an ornament. It is an organ of perception. Through metaphors, we see the world as one thing or another. Neil Postman ornaments perception world America was founded by intellectuals, a rare occurrence in the history of modern nations We might even say that America was founded by intellectuals, from which it has taken us two centuries and a communications revolution to recover. Neil Postman communication taken two When media make war against each other, it is a case of world-views in collision. Neil Postman media views war
