Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.’”

Neil Postman signals his intent to frame Amusing Ourselves to Death around the conflicting theories of writers Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Here, he summarizes the threat to societies that Huxley foresaw. As ominous as Orwell’s vision is, Huxley’s is arguably scarier as no force is required. People contribute to the downfall of their own culture by losing interest in anything serious, caught up in trivial matters. They do it willingly and unknowingly by being immersed in and consumed by amusement. (Postman’s reference to “the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy” is about activities and games that keep people distracted and happy in Huxley’s Brave New World.)

“Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.”

Here is Postman’s thesis in a nutshell. The culprit of his thesis is television, and the victim is American culture. The last sentence of this quote provides the title for the book, but it is more than a catchy saying. Postman uses the word “death” to sound the alarm that our culture is in danger of dying—or at the very least, greatly diminishing—by our occupation with amusement in this Age of Show Business.