Neil Postman's Future Shlock - Research Paper Example

Instead of heightened intellectuality becoming a source of entertainment, Postman proclaims, stupidity would entertain people more. Postman (535) refers to two American movies in this context, pointing out that the song; “Springtime for Hitler” is a joke that would not turn on the creators of such movies but on the American people. In a way, it is warning signal for the future generations, not to use the nation’s history, politics, religion, commerce, and education, as tools of entertainment, and bereft the nation of its true intellectual power.

Postman has taken the example of television, while quoting Huxley’s comparison of his Brave New World Revisited with George Orwell’s 1984 publication, differentiating Orwell’s book where “people are controlled by inflicting pain”, while in Huxley’s they are “controlled by inflicting pleasure” (536). Television, according to Postman has become the tool of cultural disaster, as people not only love viewing television but take cultural lessons from this medium. The serious issue with television presentation is that it presents not just entertaining content in such fields as politics, religion, history and others, but it is that all content is presented as entertainment.

Such a projection kills the very essence of understanding complicated issues of public interest. Postman offers the examples of politicians who use television commercially to their advantage even when they are not into political campaigning. To prove his stance, he quotes a list of political personalities entertaining people through television programs. The political example of television ruining the cultural intelligence is reinforced through “What’s My Line?” by Everett Dirksen, the late Senator from Illinois that highlights that politicians are crossing their line (536).

Another “Future Shlock” argued by Postman is related to religion. “.religion is packaged on television, as a kind of Las Vegas stage show, devoid of ritual, sacrality, and tradition. Today's electronic preachers are in no way like America's evangelicals of the past” (Postman 537). To prove his point, Postman provides a list of preachers in the past time, such names as Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and George Whiteside who used to preach theology and true learning through their tremendous expositions.

These preachers of the past are compared to modern television preachers like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and Jerry Falwell who are not preachers but performing actors who leverage from the television screen and their leadership trait to enhance their individual value only. Education is yet other arena, which is presented on television news, “packaged as a kind of show, featuring handsome news readers, exciting music, and dynamic film footage. Most especially, film footage” (Postman 537). To prove his point, Postman gives example of news related to bombing in Lebanon, which is prefaced by a commercial of happy United Airlines and ends with a Calvin Klein jeans advertisement.

Such commercials before and after the serious news item of the bombing of Lebanon shows how much value of a serious news item gets degraded when the focus of the viewers is snatched from the seriousness of the purpose of making military