Amusing Ourselves to Death

Neil Postman makes a simple distinction: the problem is not that society is being entertained, but that there is no realization that entertainment is engulfing every aspect of society.  This point shows how much America has been shaped by entertainment and television; we have been conformed and molded to the point where we don't even realize it's happening.  Postman readily admits that there is nothing wrong with being entertained.  The problem lies in the ignorance of society towards the cheapening of intellectual, religious, and rational activities by media entertainment. 

Neil Postman

One point that Postman reiterates from his book is the idea that we are becoming a nation consumed with the technology.  In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman talks about the cities that used to define us: New York City, Chicago, and Boston.  All these cities reflected moral values and hard work.  Today, however, we are best reprented by Las Vegas, a city consumed with entertainment and being amused, representing the major change in society's values.  Continuing the same idea in his speech, Postman calls us "pets" of technology; we are consumed with them.  No longer using them to benefit our hard work, they often use us.  We have become consumed by technology and using it in every aspect of life 

Postman also remains constant in his idea that society is becoming too superficial.  In his book, he discusses how how William Howard Taft was not taken as seriously because of his weight.  He was judged and discriminated against.  In the same way, society is now even more focused on the superficial with their obsession with cloning.  Trying to eliminate all flaws, cloning is being used incredibly superficially.