Neil Postman or why our shortened attention span is a tragedy
Huxley, not Orwell is the key message I took away from reading Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman and it has been a while since a book fascinated me this much. This book was published when I was 8 years old and I havent studied media studies, so I should be forgiven for blogging about it now. I dont think however that it has lost any relevance in the last 20 years. From the foreword:
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. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.
Postman shows how our culture has lost the ability to pursue an informed discourse and has turned to satisfy it's "infinite appetite for distractions", e.g. through TV news that allow 45 seconds per item and dont ask for or allow further analysis, a constant stream of irrelevant information to satisfy that appetite with the game Trivial Pursuit as the ultimate field of application for all this irrelevant information stored in our heads. Another interesting suggestion by Postman is that the average US citizen would not have recognised any of the first 15 presidents on the street, but would have known what they stood for from their speeches or published work. Try imagining this today :-)
The same "drowning in a sea of irrelevance" is true for today's business environment. I recently read somewhere (but I forgot where unfortunately) that we should make things as simple as possible, but not simpler and I am worried my own work in performance management does not adhere to this principle and that sometimes I tend to oversimplify things.
I do dread the next powerpoint presentation I will be forced to sit in on and I despise the predominant culture in any work environment I have come across to package everything in catch phrases and to expect short attention spans from the audience.
"Face time with management" is just not worth it when all you want to get across is two bullet points. We treat intelligent people like they are kids and people talk about the need to educate others to understand the principles of knowledge management. This is just so wrong.
However I try, I will fail to describe the essence of this great book and the impact on me in a short posting, just read it if you havent done so as yet, or follow one of these two links:
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