WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
This Screen
byVanderleunonJanuary 24, 2020
Neil Postman talks about television and computers.
Neil Postman was an American author, educator, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known for his twenty books, including Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), Conscientious Objections (1988), Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992), The Disappearance of Childhood (1994) and The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995).
Hi, my name is Bunny, and I’m a cyberholic. If it’s done on a Kindle, it’s just reading, right?
Auntie AnalogueJanuary 24, 2020, 12:03 PM
Some years ago I read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death and I found its theses to be uncommonly accurate and valid, and, with respect to the computer revolution whose full effect Postman would not live to see yet based only on his insights into television’s nefarious consequences, astonishingly prescient.
I distinctly recall, at age 17-18, going off to basic training and infantry advance training, for 3.5 hot summer months. Returning home, I found that the whole experience of TV and movies was so stupid to me. The same was true in later years on short expedition climbs.
Now, I watch with fond memories videos of those things, and I even see GoPro vids of almost every mountain I climbed in the NW.
Next, you’ll find my head on a table, in a jar, with a microphone and a panel of servers. bleeeep.
Was there somebody saying something in this film clip? Why do video producers crank up the background noise to such a level that there is no way to understand what the narrator is saying? Do they think they’re making something cool and edgy? No, they are making something flawed, something that has failed because nobody could hear WTF was being said.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Hi, my name is Bunny, and I’m a cyberholic. If it’s done on a Kindle, it’s just reading, right?
Some years ago I read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death and I found its theses to be uncommonly accurate and valid, and, with respect to the computer revolution whose full effect Postman would not live to see yet based only on his insights into television’s nefarious consequences, astonishingly prescient.
I distinctly recall, at age 17-18, going off to basic training and infantry advance training, for 3.5 hot summer months. Returning home, I found that the whole experience of TV and movies was so stupid to me. The same was true in later years on short expedition climbs.
Now, I watch with fond memories videos of those things, and I even see GoPro vids of almost every mountain I climbed in the NW.
Next, you’ll find my head on a table, in a jar, with a microphone and a panel of servers. bleeeep.
Was there somebody saying something in this film clip? Why do video producers crank up the background noise to such a level that there is no way to understand what the narrator is saying? Do they think they’re making something cool and edgy? No, they are making something flawed, something that has failed because nobody could hear WTF was being said.
Dig out a copy of Harper’s magazine from ’91 or ’92 and find a great piece where Postman and Camille Paglia talk …. very good, memorable …