We were keeping our eye on 1984.

That’s one hell of an opening line! Neil Postman (1931-2003) was an American media theorist. In Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), he explains why we should be more concerned about Aldous Huxley’s dystopia in [b:Brave New World|3180338|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551151249l/3180338.SY75.jpg|3204877] than George Orwell’s in [b:1984|3744438|1984|George Orwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327144697l/3744438.SY75.jpg|153313]: it’s not what we hate that will ruin us, but what we love.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is a warning against television, with a digression on the history of communication in the United States and the radical changes brought by the telegraph, which turned information into a commodity. Postman argues that there is nothing wrong with entertainment as such, but that television transforms our culture – the political discourse included – into show business. In the end, it is not so much what we watch, but the fact that we are watching. Since stepping back is not an option, Postman sighs that schools are our best way out of Huxley’s trap.Postman’s 1985 essay is still relevant today. Of course, there are major differences between linear television and the current platform society, but the risk of information overload and indifferent consumers is ever present. Then again, Postman has been caught up by developments around security and surveillance on the one hand and algorithms and deep fakes on the other. It is fair to say that some politicians are not just the entertainers as feared by Huxley, but also the deceivers as feared by Orwell. (And yes, book burnings still seem to be www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-candidate-burns-books-valentina-gomez-missouri_n_65c51461e4b0fb721d6034af>very popular in the United States.) Meanwhile, ‘social’ media are indeed able to blur our long-term memory, but there are also plenty of opportunities to search for context. It’s a pity that Postman’s examples are too outdated for a reasonable comparison.