Chapter 9 - Reach Out and Elect Someone
1. Why is drama preferred over exposition?
2. Why are their only 2 main political parties?
3. Why did people write books saying the Holocaust didn't take place ?!?!
4. What is an amnesiac?
5. What is the difference between Huxleyan and Orwellian?
REACTION:
Postman talks about how tv commercials used to be truth and gave you a proposition rather than being lies and not proposing you to do anything at all. We used to question whether commercials were good based on their similarity to reality, but now all we do is say whether we like it or dislike it. The reasons why never usually make it out of our mouths but our thoughts about it will usually stick with us. Advertising has went from campaigning to what is right about the product to campaigning what is wrong about the buyer. Politicians were never expected to be more corrupt as entertainers, but as decievers. But in reality it is kind of a mixture of both...
A really good thing was brought up about a guy named Ramsey Clark who wanted to rerun for the Senate, but wanted to make sure he won. The only way to do so was to use political image advertising. He ended up winning by a complete landslide. This is a really good point because humans always judge people on their appearance. You could be the nicest individual and have the kindest heart, but if you haven't showered in a week, people are not going to want to talk to you, be seen with you, let along vote for you. If it was a person speaking over the radio, we have zero idea what that person looks like, so we can't judge them on physical appearance at all. I don't judge but I can even be guilty of doing that exact same thing. I have listened to a song over and over and absolutely loved the song, and then I watched the music video for the same song and the lead singer or a member of the band was ugly, and I immediately got a different view of the band. For some reason, appearance is everything. It leaves impressions that we cannot erase from our heads. Its almost like our mind is just taking pictures, it can't record lines of dialogue.
This was an amazing realization that since commercials are so short, it makes us believe that all problems are solvable fast, or we can get somewhere fast, or we can learn something or do something fast because the commercials are fast. But in reality its the exact opposite. He said its better to be sold solutions rather than being confronted about our problems. I think this is just making us so weak and vulnerable as a whole society, that one day we are going to know how survive for ourselves anymore, because everything is just handed to us.
Politics are made out to be huge problems that are just so easily fixable because of the way they advertise themselves. This puts so much false information and assumptions in our heads, that about 100% of people never have any truth in what their talking about.. its all just what they have seen, or what they have heard from someone else who has seen it.
Another thing he mentions is how politicians started staring in movies and tv shows and they started to get really popular once people started to relate on a personal, at home life, level. It made them more interesting characters, but since they were politicians, this made them superstars. It immediately made them wildly appealing and interesting and also wildly unappealing or uninteresting. People began to classify them as democrats and republicans, and instead of being just a title, it became similar to a cult like term. If your not black you're white, if its not sunny, its dark, if you're not a democrat, you're a republican.
Not everyone likes history, but we learn it because it is what has shaped us to be what we are today. Apparently people deny history because it is trying to be disproved. The media is influencing what is happening in the present constantly. Yeah you're not supposed to live in the past, or the future, but I think it is really important to remember the past because of memories and lessons you have learned, and thinking about the future to give you dreams, hopes, and goals. What is happening is we all live so in the now, that we are deprived of exposure to a historical perspective because the media is taking over. Its like a fish living in water. He is around it all the time, he doesn't even notice it's there.
We were originally protected by the bill of rights because its sole purpose was to prevent the government from restricting the flow of information and ideas, but that is literally all television is. Government control. Whether we'd like to think so or not, its true.
We are so UNafraid of our government, we are almost being controlled like puppets. One giant institution.
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