Do We Live in a Trivial Culture? | Neil Postman on the Scourge of Triviality
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: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business:
“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. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.”
– Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
It is remarkable that Postman published this in 1985. Already, long before the rise of the internet, television was realizing Huxley’s fears. It’s even more remarkable that Huxley had these fears in 1932, long before the real rise of television. It’s clear now, with the rise of the internet, that Huxley’s fears have been largely realized.
But first, let’s look at Orwell’s fears, which have largely not been realized: Orwell feared that authoritarian governments would ban books, that we would therefore be deprived of information, and that the truth would be actively hidden. Ultimately, Orwell’s fear was that we would become a captive culture controlled by an authoritarian regime. While some of Orwell’s fears have come to pass (in particular, truth being hidden), it is not for the reason that he feared.
It is, instead, Huxley’s fears that have more or less all come true: that people would lose interest in reading, making book bans unnecessary, that information overload would lead to passivity and egoism, that truth would be buried in irrelevant information, and ultimately that we would become a trivial culture obsessed with superficial entertainment. It would seem that the rise and popularity of platforms such as TikTok mark a low point for our culture and do not bode well for the future.
So…what can we do? Again, real change begins with each of us. In order to push back against the triviality of our culture, we need to become more serious people. One way we can do this is to spend a lot less time on TikTok (Instagram, etc.) and a lot more time reading long and challenging books, and then interacting with people in the real world to discuss these books.
Speaking of which…if you haven’t already downloaded The How Did We Get Here? Reading List, now is a good time to do that! If you were to read every book on that reading list, I can nearly guarantee that you would see the world in a very different way.
Please forgive the brevity of this post! While I do plan for future posts to be more substantial, I am still overwhelmed at getting this new endeavor off the ground (making it available as a podcast and video, marketing it on various platforms, etc., etc.) Thank you for your patience and understanding!