"Neil Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which
totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from the vision offered by
Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into
bliss and voluntarily sacrifice their rights. Postman sees television's
entertainment value as a "soma" for the contemporary world, and he sees
contemporary mankind surrendering its rights in exchange for entertainment.
(Note that there is no contradiction between an intentional "Orwellian"
conspiracy using "Huxleyan" means, which is an argument advanced in the
later book The Unreality Industry: the deliberate manufacturing of falsehood
and what it is doing to our lives by Ian Mitroff and Warren Bennis (New
York: Carol Pub. Group, 1989). Postman evidently did not...

These treatises, including those explicitly of philosophy, tend to
leave out some of the fundamental functions of the brain, such
as the production of the illusions called "qualia", and the self and
context management in a brain based "virtual reality". This cultural
recidivism then leads to an ineffective reliance on false folk lore
theories, such as happened with phlogiston, et al. Ignorance
lasts a long time.

"There is, of course, a connection between alien- and devil-believers and a
certain variety of deconstructionists. They are people in the thrall of a
serious depression, and, in truth, it is unseemly to make fun of them,
especially since most of us are suffering in varying degrees from the same
malady. If I knew more about psychology, I might be able to give the
sickness a name. Instead, I turn to poets - not for a name but for a
confirmation and a cause. Yeats, for example, gives us a precise description
of our wayward academics and our overcommitted alienites: The former lack
all conviction, while the latter are full of passionate intensity. T. S.
Eliot, you will remember, wrote of the hollow men occupying a wasteland.
Auden wrote of the age of anxiety. Vachel Lindsay wrote of leaden...

On 27 May, 16:45, "turtoni" fastmail.net> wrote:

How on earth are my rights affected if I spend an hour being
entertained by "Dr. House"?

Socrates seemed, by all accounts, very good at rational argument. But
he never bothered to write anything down, preferring to have stand up
arguments in the forum. If the Greeks could have had television they
might have televised these arguments, therefore televisions *can*,
support rational argument, if Socrates is considered rational.

A more modern & realistic example is Bryan Magee, his excellent TV
programmes, interviewing and arguing with leading philosophers,
involved much rational argument.

I wrote :

On Tue, 27 May 2008 13:18:31 -0400, "turtoni" fastmail.net> wrote:

"Sir Frederick" fuzzysys.com> wrote in message
news:egmo34tplrjpo1vaoipjffpd742mna4bog@4ax.com...

"Paul Grieg" yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5714104e-2d41-48a7-a2a2-d55aae7ffee7@x35g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...

perhaps "Dr. House" could draw an interesting sexy analogy between the usage
of antibiotics and the rise of MRSA.

Surely you need to read any good lecture.

Unless your brain is some kind of supercomputer?

I like to think my memory is pretty good but it's not that good..

But i do enjoy art. And i do enjoy replaying music. I often go back and read
the lyrics too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgOWTM5R2DA

150 channels?

try 500+

ha harrr.

get back to work; for..

your babies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBH4S7yq9g

lecture?

"There's bats in the belfry
The windows are jammed
The toilets ain't healthy
And he don'T give a damn
He just chuckles and smiles
And laughs like a madman
A born again Rachman
Here comes Sheriff Fatman"

This is pretty (good) too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RURI8xCb74