Book Description
Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining controlof our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding book - must read.......2007-09-27
One of the best books on the danger posed by entertainment to our civic community.
Important read.......2007-09-04
This book asks questions that we need to be asking but aren't. How can we not at least question the media and technology that we take in like oxygen? It's an important read and I recommend it to anyone who isn't apathetic.
The Audio Was Great.......2007-09-03
If you like people like Colin Wilson, you will love this well written and well thought out book. It is like listening to Colin Wilson without the references to literature but the lessons are intact.
Another "Thin" Classic From Postman.......2007-06-22
This is Postman's most famous and widely read book (as is attested by the more than 100 customer reviews here on Amazon) and it is, as other reviewers have suggested, a classic in the Media Studies field. The songwriter Roger Waters was inspired enough to title his album "Amused to Death" after reading Postman's book (although Postman states in one of his later works that he himself would never stoop to listening to the likes of a "Roger Waters").
Instead of giving the usual plot synopsis here as other reviewers have done, I would like instead to perform for you a Media Studies reading of the book. That is to say, instead of reviewing the book's contents, I would like to draw your attention to the medium and format of the book itself, and in doing so, point out what this reveals about Postman as a philosopher.
To begin with the most important point: there are no pictures. Anywhere. And not only is this true of Amusing Ourselves to Death, it is true of every single one of Postman's books. This should alert us to something very important here about Postman: he is iconophobic. He is engaged in a battle against images of any, and every, kind. Not even Marshall McLuhan was so antipathetic to the use of images and illustrations, for his very first book, The Mechanical Bride, is a series of commentaries upon advertisements. In the age old battle of the Word vs. the Image -- a battle which goes way, way back before the twentieth century to the Iconoclastic debates amongst the Greek Byzantines whose iconophobes were in fact influenced by the aniconism of Islam, an entire religion which, like Judaism, had been based upon a rejection of images -- Postman, in this tradition, definitely aligns himself on the side of the Word against the iconophiles, be they Catholics or Hindus or lovers of comic books, or whomever.
Also, you will not find any references to works of art of any kind in this book. Postman apparently has an antipathy to painting and imagery of any kind whatsoever, be it "classical" or electronic. It is important to point this out because it reveals, in the tradition of Harold Innis, Postman's essential "bias" in this book. Indeed, Postman's dialogue with Camille Paglia, published in an old issue of Harper's, underlines this point, for Paglia is as much an iconophile as Postman is an iconoclast. "In the beginning was the Word," Postman quotes, as though to clarify his own personal theology, before proceeding onward with his dialogue with Paglia.
The next thing to notice about the book is its brevity. It is very short, as in fact, are all Mr. Postman's books, for Postman has been quoted as saying that he does not believe in writing long books, and that if one cannot express oneself in two hundred pages or less, then one has no business writing a book. The bibliography, accordingly, is also short, and so apparently Mr. Postman did not feel the need to read many books in order to write this book.
For Postman really only has a single point to make here, and it is an important point which he argues persuasively and eloquently: television is taking over our culture, and all our thought patterns in every aspect or division of our culture is taking its cue from the syncopated, discontinuous and ahistorical "mentality" of television. How this has affected our reading habits, and whether those reading habits still continue, albeit in a changed manner, Postman fails to address. For people have not stopped reading books; instead, they continue to read books, but their expectations of the book have changed. The brevity of Postman's book is itself perhaps an example of what happens to sustained intellectual discourse in the Electronic Age: books get shorter because our attention spans (Postman's included) have shrank. Nobody wants to wade through books on the scale and magnitude of Spengler's Decline of the West or Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit. I notice, furthermore, that the sorts of books which Postman exhibits in his Bibliography are, one and all, short books.
Thus, here is the secret of Postman's book: Postman himself suffers from the very same attention deficit disorder that he castigates others for having suffered at the hands of Electronic Society.
Hmm. One would expect a professor of Media Studies who was as well read and thoughtful as Postman to engage our attention for a while longer. If this book is the greatest thing Postman ever wrote, then we must confess, alas, that Postman's work does not contain a single magnum opus on the level of a Gutenberg Galaxy or an Understanding Media. Perhaps this fact in itself is evidence of a general decline in intellectual and literary ability in our culture during the latter half of the twentieth century.
The reader should not understand that I am saying that there is anything wrong with Amusing Ourselves to Death. But we should learn to understand its limitations in order to appreciate its place in the pantheon of Media Studies classics, upon which list, after all is said and done, Amusing Ourselves to Death places relatively low.
--John David Ebert, author Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society
Deserves to be Called a Classic.......2007-06-19
It seems unlikely that a book labeled "Current Affairs" could have a shelf life of more than a few years. It seems preposterous that a book dealing with television and referring to Dallas and Dynasty could have anything to see twenty two years after being published. Yet Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, now in it's "20th Anniversary Edition" continues to be read and studied and to hold influence. Even today it is used as required reading in many high school and college level courses. Though written by a man who made no claim to Christianity, few modern books written by an unbeliever have been more widely read and quoted by Christians. It truly is a remarkable little book.
Postman had that rarely quality of being able to see behind a fad, behind what was late and great. He saw the significance of the rise of the image and the fall of the word, the rise of amusement and the decline of discourse. He saw that television would soon saturate every area of our lives and taint the way we understand politics, religion, education and every other area of importance. As we now transition from a television-based culture to a computer-based culture the image remains central. Perhaps we have already amused ourselves past the point of no easy return. Television is remarkably effective at doing what it does best--entertaining. Postman had no argument with television is a tool of entertainment. In fact, the best things on television are its junk and no one is seriously threatened by this. Where television fails is in attempting to do the more serious work that has traditionally been carried by the written word.
Postman makes it his goal in this book to make the epistemology of television visible, demonstrating that television's way of knowing is hostile to typography's way of knowing, and not only that, but it is inferior to it. "Serious television" is a contradiction in terms for television speaks only in the voice of entertainment, never of serious, weighty, discourse--the kind of discourse that is essential to politics, religion and education. Television's influence has been relentless, transforming our culture so that every area is now considered a venue for entertainment.
Electronic media, led by television but being superseded by the computer, has changed the way we view the world and the way we carry on any kind of public discourse. Gone are the days when content was of overwhelming importance. Instead we deal with sound bites, with discordant images torn from any kind of context, and with style when in former days we relied on substance. Politicians win and lose election campaigns not on the basis of what they say, but on the basis of how they look when they say it.
Throughout the book is an interesting interplay between Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984. In the latter an oppressive regime dominates the world while in the former the people allow themselves to be overcome by levity, by entertainment and by pleasure so that they have no need of an oppressive regime. They were controlled by their amusements. Huxley, Postman argues, had it right. And I would tend to agree.
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a good read, a disturbing read, a thought-provoking read and, dare I say it, a must-read. It deserves its status as a classic and, though already two decades out of date, it is as timely as ever.
Book Description
No matter what your age, reflecting on your last interactions with a dying loved one can have life-long consequences for you. This book weaves direct quotations from real people's memories of final conversations, with advice and themes that will help you determine what may work for you.
Customer Reviews:
A much needed book on death, dying, and healing.......2007-06-16
This book is a treasure chest of stories and recollections of those who have participated in final conversations with loved ones. Those stories and recollections are told in the actual voices and words of those recounting their final conversations. And that's what makes this book so compelling. It is packed full of wisdom, insights, and inspiration from people who have experienced this final conversation. Those who have been there share the rewards, blessings, and impact on their own lives that these final conversations have had.
The authors have divided the book into several themes that emerged out of their interviews with people who have had a final conversation. Those themes include messages such as saying good bye, saying I love you, talking about everyday things and reminiscing, sharing spiritual messages, using non verbal communication to communicate, and healing damaged relationships. It shows that you can approach the final conversations in a variety of ways and address a variety of needs. And it clearly shows that any of these methods may be effective and rewarding for both the person in the final stages of his or her life and for the person left behind.
Most people, when asked, report that they want an opportunity to talk with a loved one at least one more time. This book helps you gain the insight, courage, confidence, and skill to have a rewarding final conversation---one that leaves you with no regrets, that mends old hurts caused by a difficult relationship, and/or that makes certain that you maintain and nurture the relationship until the very end.
Each story may not exactly fit your situation, but by picking and choosing, you will be able find ideas and tools to make the best of the final opportunity to say "I love you" and "goodbye" to loved ones in the final stages of their lives.
The authors, both communication scholars and experts, provide advice on how to be most effective during your final conversations. They give those readers less confident in their communication skills ideas on how to approach their own situation.
Yes, I have more confidence in approaching the final days of someone I love, but I also experienced an unexpected benefit---one perhaps not expected by the authors. That benefit is the realization that life is a gift---one that end all too soon, and this book provided me with inspiration and ideas that will help me use my final days to advantage. That is, I have a better notion of how to say goodbye to family and friends in a way that will let us celebrate our time together and express the love we have had. And that is a gift these authors have given me---one that I will always cherish.
FC Talk.......2007-05-10
After reading this several times now, each time I learn something different about myself and my conversations with those I've lost and loved. Unfortunately, I've recently experienced a death in my family and this book came in very handy. It's true, there weren't many if any books I encountered that helped me through the final days. It's uncanny how the two authors capture the voice of every individual they interviewed and brought every memory shared back to life. It's remarkable and a book I recommend to everyone. I know everyone's experiences are different, but all can benefit from this. Although your experience may be different, there are so many similarities people can identify with. Take comfort in knowing that not just the authors, but those interviewed have walked down the path you may walk down one day and know that those who went before you are there to help guide you through this book.
How to talk to the dying.......2007-04-29
Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (4/07)
"Final Conversations" by Keeley and Yingling is a long overdue book in the field of grief and death literature. Most books about death deal with grief or the death process; this book helps the grief process before death occurs so that interaction with the dying is a meaningful experience that leaves no regrets for the living.
Keeley and Yingling interviewed eighty-two people about their experiences with the dying and how they talked to their loved ones before the end. "Final Conversations" is primarily advice about how to talk to a dying loved one in a way that brings comfort to both the dying and the living. This conversation is referred to as "F-C talk" or final conversations talk. The book enlarges "conversation" to mean communication, be it verbal or by touching and body language. Different examples are proposed regarding how to say "I love you" or how to express love, if the words are difficult to say, by non-verbal communication, such as taking care of business for the dying, touching, and just spending time.
The book is broken into several chapters on different conditions that mark "F-C talk," most notably how people deal with a death based on age--whether the person having the conversation with the dying is a child of a dying parent or grandparent, a teenager, someone middle-aged, or an elderly spouse. One of the most interesting sections was on spiritual messages--signs that the dying may be partially in communication with the life beyond, or signs after they died that they had come back to give a message or in some way comfort those left behind. The authors do not go in-depth into this area, but the examples reaffirm life-after-death in ways similar to many books on out-of-body experiences and reincarnation. An extremely useful part of the book was the section on healing broken relationships. Many examples were given of siblings or parents and children who heal a difficult relationship, or how the living can feel at peace even if the dying is unable or unwilling to have a healing final conversation.
My only criticism of the book is that no dying people were actually interviewed about their experiences with final conversations. The book is more for the living to cope with the process of losing a loved one. The authors stated they did not interview any of the dying who had had final conversations because they did not wish to add to the stress of dying for those people. However, I would have liked to hear from the dying what they most wanted and needed from people as they were dying. While I understand the difficulties of interviewing the dying, I think a chapter of interviews with the dying would enrich the book; the authors could perhaps interview the terminally ill who had "F-C talk" but then survived.
"Final Conversations" is a much needed book that is long overdue. It will be extremely helpful to anyone facing the loss of a loved one, or people who have lost someone and are grieving, or questioning themselves about what they did or should have done for a lost loved one. While it is a how-to book in some ways, the authors point out that their examples are not strict guidelines for how to talk to the dying, and that every relationship is different. The authors give good guidelines, but the real strength of the book is the stories of those who lost loved ones--reading "Final Conversations" is almost like being part of a grief support group. Both Kelley and Yingling should be commended for this important work.
Book Description
In its teachings, practices, and institutions, Buddhism in its varied Asian forms has been--and continues to be--centrally concerned with death and the dead. Yet surprisingly "death in Buddhism" has received little sustained scholarly attention. The Buddhist Dead offers the first comparative investigation of this topic across the major Buddhist cultures of India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Tibet, and Burma. Its individual essays, representing a range of methods, shed light on a rich array of traditional Buddhist practices for the dead and dying; the sophisticated but often paradoxical discourses about death and the dead in Buddhist texts; and the varied representations of the dead and the afterlife found in Buddhist funerary art and popular literature.
The paradigmatic figure of the historical Buddha, his death, the symbolism of his funeral, and his relationship to the impurity of the dead are treated in the opening essays by John S. Strong and Gregory Schopen. The deaths of later remarkable adepts, following the Buddha's model, and their significance for Buddhist communities are investigated by Koichi Shinohara, Jacqueline I. Stone, Raoul Birnbaum, and Kurtis R. Schaeffer. A dramatic, often controversial category of exemplary death, that of "giving up the body" or Buddhist suicide, is examined by James Benn and D. Max Moerman. Moving from celebrated masters to ordinary practitioners and devotees, Bryan J. Cuevas, John Clifford Holt, and Matthew T. Kapstein take up the subject of the "ordinary dead" and the intimate relations that often persist between them and those still living, while Hank Glassman, Mark Rowe, and Jason A. Carbine shed light on Buddhist funerary practices and address the physical and social locations of the Buddhist dead.
This important collection moves beyond the largely text- and doctrine-centered approaches characterizing an earlier generation of Buddhist scholarship and expands its treatment of death to include ritual, devotional, and material culture. Its foundational insights are both culturally and historically grounded and at the same time offer a basis for further, comparative conversations on death between scholars of Buddhism and other religious traditions.
Book Description
Jean Amry (Auschwitz survivor and author of At the Mind's Limits) thought of On Suicide as a continuation of the kind of reflections on mortality he had laid down in On Aging. But here he probes further and more deeply into the meaning of death and into the human capacity for suicide or voluntary death.
Customer Reviews:
On Suicide: A Discourse on Voluntary Death.......2005-12-19
There are other options, other possibilities. If you like this book, you will probably like the poetry of Sylvia Plath (I do) - although defined by her suicide attempts and her final "success" - it has meant that Plath's work has been mostly "defined" by her actions, rather than letting the work define itself - so this has limited the potential reading of her work and has limited the reader's perspectives of it , which is a real shame. If all roads lead to loss of life through choice, then you have not looked at other routes. I would urge readers to look at this as just an intellectual debate, rather than as a self justification for self-annihilation/destruction. Suicide is selfish, no matter how you dress it up. It is the ultimate selfish act. There is always hope, it is just sometimes very hard to see - something worth remembering when reading this book. Life is a choice and it is hard work - but there are benefits longer term. Don't give up, you are needed here - you might not really believe it but you are. You have yet more to achieve.
The Kirkus Review is not-so accurate. But still..........2004-09-29
It could be worse, like the hatchet job below that prompted me to write this. First things first: anyone who is pretentious/affectatious enough to quote Nietzsche solely in his original German- a quote that is all the more obscure for its reference to 'Seneca and his ilk,' (the title) and its borrowing of a Latin coin of phrase- has already demonstrated his bad faith. I'm talking about the next reviewer. You see; he's not assuming that you will posses a working knowledge of German so that you will catch his all-too-coy reference. He simply wants to intimidate you with his high and mighty linguistic flourishes. "I CAN QUOTE NIETZSCHE IN THE ORIGINAL AREN"T I SO FRIKKIN SMART NOW YOU HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY INTELLECTUAL OPINIONS!!! He seems to scream.
He comes not to discuss but to brag and condescend- he doesn't give an accurate rendering of Amery's book, he merely reveals the depths of his own extremely beknighted 'Weltanshaaung.' Here is the translation of said piece, from "The Joyful Science," (a wonderful book and one deserving of a better reader) It is the 34th song,
"They write and write their intolerably sagacious Larifari,
As if it 'gaelt primum scribere,
Deinde philosophari.' (meaning 'first to write then to philosophize.')
IMHO, the statement applies far more readily to the reviewer employing it than the book he reviews. Yes, Amery attempted suicide before writing this and then ended up succeeding some time after. Yes, Amery does employ a pseudo-existentialist vocabulary in order to make sense of his predicament. But he has no pretense that he speaks for mankind. He simply dislikes the various ways in which society seeks to make sense/marginalize/cure the phenomenon of suicide, and he espouses a different tact, in understanding it. He believes that the act is one a person can approach and commit with dignity and clear-mindedness. Make what you will of that. It calls to mind the opening chapter of Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus," which is, at heart, another mediation on suicide, albeit from a different perspective again.
His suicide in no means destroys or stains his observations and ideas. I have all three of Amery's books, and I unhesitatingly recommend each one. I'm not planning on killing myself, and my feelings on the subject are ambivalent. Still, I find J. Amery to be refreshingly clear, immediate and concise. He avoids jargoneering and tendentiousness, and never stoops to pathos. He writes in a persuasive and at times subtly humorous fashion. He isn't trying to get the world to kill itself en masse, and he's not trying to get your child to put its head in an oven. He simply wants to discuss and examine, as objectively as possible (though he admits that it is not) the idea that life (under certain conditions) may not be worth living. This is one of the few books on suicide that actually had a great deal of profundity. Worth the read.
The third reviewer is also spot-on... I would also recommend A. Alvarez' "The Savage God," for a book that seeks to confront artistic self-destruction, among other things. "In Darkness," by James A. Wechsler is another book that approaches the phenomena from a familial point of view.
how suicide actually feels..........2003-01-08
Finding myself an unwilling survivor of suicide in 1991, I resigned myself to making a more strenuous effort. At the same time, I began a rigorous study of the literature of suicide in order to gain some understanding of what I found happening to me. The situation was simply bizarre beyond words.
Subsequently, I have plowed through mountains of "expert" opinion and sampled all the various available treatments with the unavoidable conclusion that no one can help me understand what is happening. And I really ought to finish my suicide before madness incapacitates me. The urgency is extreme.
Here the author at least exposes the missteps of psychotherapy with regard to suicide in such a frank and compassionate way that I finally have some semblance of hope that I can make my peace with the problem. Here is a human who has thrust himself beyond the edge of life and was involuntarily thrust back into it. So he knows what he's talking about. And his manner of discussion is so soothing and articulate and artistic that it reintroduces some dignity into my own life that has been cast aside, even by myself, as a horrific failure. Yes, dignity at least appears to become resurrected as a possibility to me now.
And the friendly talk here is infinitely satisfying on so many different intimately personal levels. The author's experience is one that comforts by way of confirming the unspeakable fact that we who long to die are NOT really mad. We would not REALLY want to die if the world were really a sane place. And he scratches a possibility of hope onto the surface of the world that says--Let those of us who know this feeling reach out in sane comfort to each other. No particular way...just some way. Not much sanity...just a little...just enough to get by on.
And that's precisely what I'm doing with this review. I am bearing witness that this man knows how suicide feels...so that his words have substance and profound depth and comfort.
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Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures
Beth A. Berkowitz
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0195179196 |
Book Description
The death penalty in classical Judaism has been a highly politicized subject in modern scholarship. Enlightenment attacks on the Talmud's legitimacy led scholars to use the Talmud's criminal law as evidence for its elevated morals. But even more pressing was the need to prove Jews' innocence of the charge of killing Christ. The reconstruction of a just Jewish death penalty was a defense against the accusation that a corrupt Jewish court was responsible for the death of Christ. In Execution and Invention, Beth A. Berkowitz tells the story of modern scholarship on the ancient rabbinic death penalty and offers a fresh perspective using the approaches of ritual studies, cultural criticism, and talmudic source criticism. Against the scholarly consensus, Berkowitz argues that the early Rabbis used the rabbinic laws of the death penalty to establish their power in the wake of the destruction of the Temple. Following recent currents in historiography, Berkowitz sees the Rabbis as an embattled, almost invisible sect within second-century Judaism. The function of their death penalty laws, Berkowitz contends, was to create a complex ritual of execution under rabbinic control, thus bolstering rabbinic claims to authority in the context of Roman political and cultural domination. Understanding rabbinic literature to be in dialogue with the Bible, with the variety of ancient Jews, and with Roman imperialism, Berkowitz shows how the Rabbis tried to create an appealing alternative to the Roman, paganized culture of Palestine's Jews. In their death penalty, the Rabbis substituted Rome's power with their own. Early Christians, on the other hand, used death penalty discourse to critique judicial power. But Berkowitz argues that the Christian critique of execution produced new claims to authority as much as the rabbinic embrace. By comparing rabbinic conversations about the death penalty with Christian ones, Berkowitz reveals death penalty discourse as a significant means of creating authority in second-century western religious cultures. Advancing the death penalty discourse as a discourse of power, Berkowitz sheds light on the central relationship between religious and political authority and the severest form of punishment.
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The Contemporary Deathbed: The Ultimate Rush (Language, Discourse, Society)
John Tercier
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: 1403946280
Release Date: 2005-08-11 |
Book Description
How do we picture ourselves dying? A "death with dignity"--the darkened room, and a few murmured farewells? Or in the lights-flashing, siren-wailing, chest-pumping maelstrom of the back of an ambulance hurtling towards an ER? Over the last decade, the two most robust vehicles of popular culture: film and television, have opted for the latter scenario. This book examines the high-tech death of the twenty-first century as enacted in our hospitals and portrayed on our TV screens.
Book Description
This is the only book on death and dying that reveals the total truth about the death event--because it is written by Avatar Adi Da Samraj, the Divinely-Realized Adept, and therefore from the perspective of Immortal Consciousness. Chapters include "The Truth about Death", "Going beyond Fear", "Your Destiny after Death", "How to Serve the Dying Person", "The Best Form of Grief", and many others.
Customer Reviews:
Best of the lot . . . by far!.......2004-06-15
As a longtime hospice worker I've made a habit of reading everything I can find about death and dying. The psychologically-oriented books on bereavement and mourning are interesting and even helpful, but most of them presume that death is just annihilation. The religiously oriented books are more hopeful but, to put it bluntly, most of them are filled with nonsensical dogma. I know for a fact that death isn't annihilation because even after people die you can feel their spirit in the room. In little, out-of-the-way spiritual bookstores I've found several small, pretty marginal books that acknowledge this fact and attempt to describe what happens to a person AFTER they die. But none of them really speak with the authority of the two best books on the entire subject of death and dying, Sogyal Rinpoche's The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and Da Avabhasa's Easy Death. The good Rinpoche's book is very good indeed and I got a lot of out of it. But Da Avabhasa's book is of another order entirely. Da Avabhasa is an American spiritual master who literally accompanies his own devotees through the death process (the book contains some amazing stories about this) Most importantly, he addresses every important aspect of the death and dying in a language that we ordinary mortals can understand, offering us clear, absolutely usable advice that I've never seen anywhere else. You really can and should know what happens after death, and this book will tell you. I've been employing Da Avabhasa's wisdom in my hospice work for a few years now and it's just totally changed the outcome for those who have died right in front of me--as well as for their families, and even for me. It turns out that what you need to know about death is exactly what you should know about life as well. I don't know who this man is or where he came from but they ought to give him a medal for this book.
One of the best books available on a difficult subject.......2000-10-04
Most people shy away from the subject of death until it intrudes on their, otherwise comfortable, lives. Da Avabhasa, through a series of transcribed lectures and essays reveals the knowledge of this subject only available to a realized being. That he experiences the phenomenal world differently to most others makes the writing occasionally tricky to follow, but never give up, the knowledge contained, in this book, has the ability to remove your fear of this topic.
Take the classic book "On Death and Dying" and explain it with the understanding, knowledge and compassion of one who is fully realized in his relationship with the Divine and you have this invaluable book.
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The Death of Discourse
Ronald K. L. Collins , and
David M. Skover
Manufacturer: Westview Pr (Short Disc)
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God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law
ASIN: 0813327237 |
Book Description
This book explores one of the most disturbing intellectual dilemmas of our time -- that our beloved First Amendment is being exploited in the name of the dumbing of America. It is the first book to examine the popular culture of the First Amendment, specifically with reference to television, advertising, and pornography. Comparing the culture of popular discourse with traditional First Amendment ideals, the authors expose the vast gap between our speech practices and our speech principles. Is the tyranny of the trivialization of discourse a problem? In a dialogue-like way, the authors invite their readers to judge.
Customer Reviews:
The Death of Discourse.......2001-11-04
This is an elegant, insightful, thought-provoking look at, essentially, the struggle between two different ideas of the First Amendment: The rather narrow notion of the First Amendment as protecting only political speech or speech that enhances democratic debate versus the more free-wheeling idea that the First Amendment protects all speech, from pornography to offensive literature.
While I believe a truly free society must embrace the latter position, I find the authors compellingly present the views on both sides of the issue, and they do so via a playful, socratic dialectic rather than a dry rehashing of esoteric law review articles. I recommend this book for anyone who seeks to understand the pressure the first amendment is subjected to by our modern society.
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- Bible Codes Revealed: The Coming UFO Invasion
- Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride
- Blues People: Negro Music in White America
- Body & Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer
- Burlesque and the New Bump-N-Grind
- Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- How to Audit ISO 9001:2000
- Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification
- What's the Matter with Kansas
- Travel by Cargo Ship
- Ace Combat
- Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
- Applied Kinesiology: A Training Manual and Reference Book of Basic Principles and Practices
- Data Mining: Introductory and Advanced Topics
- U. S. Master GAAP Guide, 2000
- Institutional Efficiency and Its Determinants: The Role of Political Factors in Economic Growth
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School
The Disappearance of Childhood
Teaching As a Subversive Activity
Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future
