Tag Archives: Neil Postman

Reading is Such a Bohr

Posted on March 13, 2013 by mikeplugh

[Niehls Bohr] meant to teach us, as have other wise people, that it is better to have access to more than one profound truth. To be able to hold comfortably in one’s mind the validity and usefulness of two contradictory … Continue reading →

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Facebookus Interruptis

Posted on September 21, 2012 by mikeplugh

With a hat tip to my friend Alix Howard, news that a hostage taker in Pittsburgh has been “live-blogging” his own evolving situation has crossed my desk. My first thought was that we’re seeing a 2012 version of Dog Day … Continue reading →

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Don’t Worry It’s Just Like the Internet

Posted on September 14, 2012 by mikeplugh

Some time ago I posted a video of Neil Postman talking in 1985 on PBS about his thesis for the book Amusing Ourselves to Death. In the course of his discussion, Postman notes that USA Today, the nation’s most successful … Continue reading →

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Bullshit and the Art of Crap Detection (Neil Postman)

Posted on April 18, 2012 by mikeplugh

This has been posted elsewhere in the Internet wilderness, but I think it’s substantially more important than most of the other bullshit out there that I’m reproducing it in full, rather than simply linking to it. Enjoy. “Bullshit and the … Continue reading →

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A Change Gonna Come

Posted on October 13, 2011 by mikeplugh

With apologies to Sam Cooke and the haunting song he wrote about the struggle for civil rights, a change gonna come. Let’s start with a video that’s gone viral in the last day or so (another sign that the change … Continue reading →

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The Apple Never Falls Far…

Posted on October 6, 2011 by mikeplugh

On hearing the news of Steve Jobs’ death, I recalled my own experience with Apple going back to about 1980. A friend had an Apple computer in his room at about 9 or 10 years old and we played some … Continue reading →

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Dunkers do nots

Posted on September 21, 2011 by mikeplugh

Some time ago, probably a year or more before this blog post, I was inclined to remember an anecdote about a religious sect who had sworn off publication of their ideas for fear of being entrapped by them. At the … Continue reading →

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Hardening of the Categories

Posted on August 31, 2011 by mikeplugh

One way we might examine the dynamic and complex environments around us is by breaking those environments down as systems and subsystems. Much can be revealed about the structures that constitute our environments, their interplay with other structures, and the … Continue reading →

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Village of the Watermills: Kurosawa’s Media Ecology

Posted on August 8, 2011 by mikeplugh

Akira Kurosawa is one of the most celebrated film directors of the 20th century, mainly for his ability to translate Japanese sensibilities to the international language of the medium. In Japan, there has always been a mix of celebration and … Continue reading →

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Poorly Informed?

Posted on August 4, 2011 by mikeplugh

Mike Wallace brings us a segment from a mid-1980’s edition of 60 Minutes about the problem of cultural literacy and its meaning to democracy. Wallace spends time in the classroom of Jamie O’Neill at South Puget Sound Community College discussing … Continue reading →

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