This is the preview for part 2 of the partially examined life episode 268 on Neil Postman's

amusing ourselves to death, public discourse in the age of show business featuring guest

Brian Hurt.

In this clip from near the beginning, we look more closely at Postman's claim that the

written word is so much better at supporting context-laden chains of reasoning than anything

that is televised, is dramatized.

Enjoy!

The medium of television, one of its commandments is there can be no prerequisites, so it cannot

require that you have in your mind anything previous.

Every step is radically de-contextualized and you can see how impoverished discourse would

be calm if that's the case.

I just find myself having a little bit of a visual reaction again about the way in

which the medium is used versus the way in which it has to be used.

In the context you bring to a written word, the idea that you are able to have a whole

that is bigger than the little tiny chinks in the chain that give you a greater thought

and greater understanding as a result of having that whole put forth before you and the notion

that that is a proper function of typography as opposed to television.

I still find myself dubious of the notion that which is implied by him, something like

that's always happens with the written word and that basically never happens with something

like audio visual media.

I don't know, I'm still sort of on the fence about whether there is a predisposition

one way or the other, but it seems clear to me that you have all kinds of complete thoughts

...