25. Future Shlock

            Neil Postman explains that future stock is the rapid erosion of collective intelligence. Human intelligence is a very fragile thing because anything can distract it or even annihilate it. Superstitions, ignorance, cruelty, cowardice and others can all have an effect on someone`s intelligence. Although the United States is one of the few countries that founded learning and had several intellectuals, the country also suffered from the lost of intelligence. Many years ago, America was referred as the Empire of Reason; however, today this statement is no longer true. The valuation of intelligence in the American`s use of language, logic and reason has significantly decreased. The people change once the technology improves because the people start to love an object more than themselves. Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World prophesied that the people would destroy themselves not with concentration what we fear or hate but instead, with what we welcome and love. The television is the biggest influence in one`s intelligent understanding of public affairs because although it has some serious subjects such as news, politics, history and weather, there are also many junks that distort the mindsets of the Americans. The media nowadays is more concerned about bringing entertainment to the audience, therefore, most of the time, every channel involves music, celebrities and dynamic film footage. The television does not inform the audience about some basic information so it is not a great information machine and it is the paradigm for all our attempts at public communication. When culture becomes distracted by trivia, political and social life are simply a round of entertainments and public conversation is only a form of baby talk, then the nation would certainly find itself in risk of cultural death.

             Neil Postman wrote an article to warn the readers about the decreasing intelligence of the Americans. He starts his essay with the story of when he first had the idea of future stock with his friend, Charles Weingartner. This short story is a good attention getter and it also introduces the main topic of the essay since he explains afterward his own definition of future stock. He tells a brief example of how Germany had lost intelligence by burning all the intellectual books and exiling scientists and philosophers who would disagree with their opinions. This example allows the author to skip directly to the Americans and how they have lost their intelligence. Postman consulted several experts and asked their opinion about the subject so that he could raise the credibility of his article. An illustration would be when Aldous Huxley mentioned that the people are welcoming things that would destroy themselves. When the author started to talk about the impact of television in the audience, he used many examples to defend his arguments. The used examples that are well known among the people such as Sesame Street to defend the fact that media is more concerned about entertaining their audience rather than teaching or informing the people. Although the author focuses on the downfall of American intelligence, he also mentioned about the period when America was considered as the Empire of reasons to emphasize that America was a very intelligent country. However, he could have talked about other examples of why Americans have lost their intelligence instead of just focusing on just television.