Postman

Postman, in the last paragraph of chapter 11, makes the distinction between the Age of Exposition and the Age of Show Business. He explains that now, in the Age of Show Business, as a result of entertainment, we laugh at things we do not understand, and we laugh at things that have no context and teach us nothing. In the Age of Exposition, people were entertained in their learning, while today we are not, and it negatively effects our intelligence and literacy. The example in the last paragraph referring to our laughter relates perfectly to Postman's premise that he has argued throughout the book: our entertainment is free of logic, and our obsession with entertainment is antagonistically impacting the attention span and acuity of our society today.

Communication Breakdown

On Friday, I remember having a hard time answering questions in my math class when Ms. Reick would look at me to answer. Not only was I frustrated with myself because I could not communicate even the most obvious answer, but she became frustrated with me also. She became so flustered with the class that she could not take the silence anymore, and told us all that we could talk in her class. This incident reminds me of Postman's point in the second chapter of the book where he discusses oral discussion showing truth in African culture. Without oral communication, they would not know truth or communication. This is relatable in society today. Postman seems to fear that we are straying away from all forms of communication except for communication through technology, which would be detrimental to our society, and even answering simple questions in school would become incredibly difficult. Maybe he has a point, maybe the medium really is the message.

Postman's Point

In both his novel Amusing Ourselves to Death, and in his interview, Postman discusses how society becomes more reliant on electronics and technology as time goes on. In his book, he compares our society to the bustling city of Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world, which is consumed in technology. He argues that people are becoming "pets" to their electronics. Technological advancements such as facebook and texting entertain us, but at what cost? He goes on to talk about, in his speech and in his novel, how these new ways of conversing are hardly advancements, and actually have set human kind back, and that not all advancements are actually beneficial to society.
In his novel, Postman also writes about how society's morals have tanked as a result of technology. For example, we have become more obsessed with physical appearance as a result of technology. He argues that news anchors are more concerned with how they look and their make up than with the news that they report. Also, he discusses cloning. He states that we started with monkeys, sheeps, and frogs, but that humans are the next step. The thought that our society believes that cloning is the proper response if anything at all goes wrong with a person's body is morally pathetic.

Chavez Article

1. "Civility in public discourse is important". This opening shows that Chavez believes that being articulate and well mannered in public is important. She places high value on proper word choice and in politeness to avoid a public scene or tragedy.
2. The word "bellicose" used in this article describes an eagerness to fight, which fits this articles purpose perfectly. It serves as a perfect segway from the arguement that colorful vocabulary did not cause the Tuscon shootings to the arguement that we use words all the time with references to battle. For example, the word "campaign" is derived from a French word to describe military manuevers. She also argues that using words like "target", even in light of the shooting, should still be used because words like this did not cause the tragedy.
3. The point Chavez is trying to convey is that we should still use words that are not politically correct as long as they are used in polite and correct context. Her best arguement for this purpose comes about when she references the use of the word "niggardly" by former Washington mayor, which forced him into early retirement. This word sounds as though it is politically uncorrect and offensive, but used in the correct context, the word actually means miserly. It was incorrect to assume the offensiveness of the former mayor's statement, showing that people need to stop worrying about word choice as long as it is in the correct context.
4. I disagree with Chavez. Not all people are intelligent enough to know that some words that may sound insulting are not actually that demeaning.