Having looked at some of Hannah Arendt’s seminal ideas, I’ve decided to go ahead and move on to our next great thinker, Ivan Illich. We will return to Postman and Arendt eventually, but for now it seems like a good time to dive into the thought of another of our great 20th century giants. Ivan…
WATCH AS VIDEO The following is from my most recent conversation with acclaimed novelist, essayist, gentleman farmer, cultural critic, and Orthodox Christian, Paul Kingsnorth. (As you likely already know(!)) Paul writes a lot about our culture of “The Machine” and the influence of technology on our lives. YANAM: What is “wisdom”? PK: Wisdom is one…
WATCH AS VIDEO Where does totalitarianism begin? This is the question that Hannah Arendt wanted to answer, and the following quote from her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, provides us with at least one place to begin to answer this question: “The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy…
Watch As Video Today’s quote from Hannah Arendt is particularly timely as academics (and others) in the West increasingly question some of the most basic biological realities of life, and as AI and other technologies make it increasingly difficult to discern truth from falsity. Here’s the quote: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not…
Watch As Video As I mentioned in my last installment, Hannah Arendt saw firsthand the rise of totalitarian fascism in her home country of Germany. She saw that the lack of appreciation for what one has, which includes intangibles such as one’s culture, one’s history, the cultural and physical institutions that one has inherited (and…
After considering some of Neil Postman’s seminal ideas, I’ve decided to go ahead and move on to our next great thinker, Hannah Arendt. We will return to Postman eventually, but for now it seems a good time to dive into the thought of one of our other great 20th century giants. While it might not…
Watch As Video Paul Kingsnorth is an acclaimed cultural critic, novelist, gentleman farmer, essayist, and recent convert to Orthodox Christianity. He talks a lot about our contemporary “Machine” culture and the influence of technology on our lives, so it seemed logical that my first interview on this new platform would be with him. If you…
Watch As Video The next Neil Postman quote we’re going to look at is also from Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, here’s the quote: “Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas; they exchange images. They do not argue with…
Watch As Video A subject rarely addressed, but that plays an increasing role in the lives of all people is that of desire, and in particular: how do we know what we want? As always, historical perspective is enlightening: before the dawn of modern advertising (and the industrialization that it was created to market) there…
Watch As Video Moving forward, in addition to writing standalone pieces like the one I published last week, I am going to continue to go deeper into some of Neil Postman’s most important ideas. The second quote from Postman that I’m going to look at is also from his best-known work, Amusing Ourselves to Death:…
